


Encounter on Lothal

by SavageStar



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Armitage Hux Being An Asshole, Bendemption, Dominant Kylo Ren, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Hate to Love, Hurt Kylo Ren, Hurt/Comfort, Kylo Ren Has Issues, Kylo Ren is Not Nice, Kylo takes her cherry, Lonely Kylo Ren, Loss of Virginity, Lothal, Medical Procedures, Medical Trauma, Mortis (Star Wars), Prostitution, Protective Kylo Ren, Redeemed Ben Solo, Slow Burn, Smut, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Tags May Change, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:01:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26075335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SavageStar/pseuds/SavageStar
Summary: Kylo's attempts to locate long-hidden Jedi relics, as well as his attraction to a certain young officer, are leading him down a dangerous path.  Will he find the answers he seeks?
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

“And send her immediately, I have somewhere I have to be at twenty-two-hundred,” Ren demanded through the comm unit.

“Right away, Sir,” the voice on the other end replied.

Kylo Ren, second in line to the Supreme Leader of the First Order, slammed the comm unit down on the counter of his spacious refresher and wiped shaving lotion off his neck, disdaining the small spots of blood rising from the surface of his chin. While the service droids were capable of shaving him, like most things, he trusted few others to do things for him, even if it meant events turned out less than perfect.

“Frag,” he whispered angrily, pressing his finger against the cuts to slow the bleeding. He considered his dark visage in the hologlass, ignoring the signs of sleep deprivation. Kylo Ren had other things on his mind; namely, the mission he was about to carry out on Lothal in his quest to retrieve the missing holocron needed to help decipher his most recent discovery.

The door to his quarters suddenly whispered quietly aside, revealing a slight, brown-haired young lady.

“Damn, that was quicker than I expected,” he muttered, shrugging off his dressing robe to reveal his tightly muscled physique, lifting the garment up to the hook next to his sonic shower.

“I’ll be just a moment, sit and wait for me,” he commanded.

The young woman looked around the quarters, gawking at its splendor. The floor tiles, the wall panels, all of it evoked a sheen of Mustafarian basalt. It was luxuriously spacious though there were few furnishings in the room, and what there were spoke of minimalism. A bed, a desk and a chair, and little else.

“Take your clothes off,” Ren demanded of her as he approached the bed, his already-naked form intimidating her.

“What?” she asked incredulously.

“Your clothes,” he stressed, impatiently. “Take them off. I’m busy today, this has to be quick.”

“But why would I need to-“

Ren strode quickly around the bed, grabbed her with his massive hands and began undressing her. She yelped in shock.

“You must be new,” he grumbled, “this isn’t Zeltros and I’m not always going to have time for the niceties. Understand?” he asked as he glared at her.

“But, Sir, I’m here for-“

“You’re here for me!” he exclaimed, frustrated with her lack of compliance. He dragged her by the arm as she tripped out of her uniform pants and underwear and he shoved her face-first into the bed, bending her over as he buried his fingers in her hair, pressing her face into a pillow to quiet her. ‘I’ll have to talk to Qaderos about these amateurs he sends me,’ Ren thought to himself, making a mental note to talk to the head whoremaster who managed the ship’s concubines.

The dark knight used his unnatural abilities to overpower her struggles as he stroked himself to readiness. He hadn’t far to go as her attempts to fight back were enough to arouse him. He liked his partners feisty and he wasn’t opposed to actual combat in the bedroom as an aphrodisiac.

“That’s it,” he purred in her ear as he positioned himself at her wet entrance, “fight me all you like, it makes me harder.” He could feel her level of fear spike at his taunt and a small squeal escaped her throat as she inhaled in terror. With that, he drove himself home in her tiny opening, her screams of pain and defiance muffled by the downy pillow. He rode her roughly as if he was trying to become one with her. “So tight,” he sighed to her, enjoying the snug massage her womanhood was providing his swollen member. He’d arranged this tryst in anticipation of his time off-base where he’d have no access to sexual relations for several days. The stress he was experiencing needed a release before he left, and she was just the prescription for his ills.

‘I’ll have to remember this one,’ Ren thought to himself, thoroughly relishing her body. He continued grunting through his thrusts and as he neared his climax, he began beating her backside with the flat of his hand, the flesh turning as bright red as his face. “I’m going to cum so hard in you,” he threatened as he crossed the precipice of pleasure. Stars lit his field of vision, his knees locked and a roar rumbled from his throat as he fell over her back, their sweat mixing in the space between their skin.

Ren’s ragged breath blew across her ear, causing a chill to rise on her arms, which she brought underneath her torso in an effort to rise from the bed. Instead, Kylo pressed down on her as he rose up, keeping her in place. As he straightened, he saw something that gave him a shock and a cry of revulsion escaped him. “What in Hellios!?” he yelled, observing a trickle of blood down the young woman’s leg. “Why did they send you here if you’re on your cycle?!” he demanded. “Dammit all!” Ren strode quickly to the refresher to fetch towels for them, cleaning his manhood of his cum and her blood as he returned.

“Here,” he threw a dry towel onto the bed next to her face, and he could now see she was crying, trembling uncontrollably.

“I’m not mad at you,” he explained, “Qaderos just never should have sent you here in this condition.”

“It’s not my cycle,” she whimpered sadly.

He was now more concerned. “Are you hurt?” he asked solicitously.

“No!” she shouted accusingly as she began to clean herself. “I’m a virgin! Or I was!”

Ren reeled at the news. Anger and regret both collided in his consciousness as he tried to wrap his mind around what just occurred.

“Why would they send me a virgin?!?” he demanded.

“What difference does it make whether I’m a virgin or not?” she countered angrily. She quickly realized they were having two different conversations.

At that, Ren’s door tone sounded in the silence that hung between them. “Get dressed,” he commanded her as he wrapped his towel around his midsection. The young woman quickly gathered her garments and headed for the refresher as Ren responded, “Come.”

A tall, thin male in long robes entered Ren’s compartment with a pretty, demure Twi’lek trailing him. “Apologies for the delay, Sir,” the Muun nodded to Ren, his elongated head and nose accentuating his appearance. “I was unable to find a girl until just this moment,” spreading his slender hands in a gesture of supplication. “It appears General Hux is having a social event and all of my other ladies are engaged at the moment.”

Ren stood stock-still, trying to take in the news. “This girl?”

“Yes, Sir,” the Muun demurred, “is she not acceptable?” The girl coyly turned an ankle, cocked her chin against her shoulder and slid Ren a sly smile.

“She’s fine, she’s just…” Ren was now confused. “If she’s the girl you’ve brought me, then who…”

The door to the refresher slid open to reveal the brown-haired female Ren now realized he had just raped. She was once again dressed in uniform, her rank badge revealing her to be a First Order Lieutenant, something he’d apparently ignored previously.

As their eyes met and she looked at him angrily, he blanched. His blood ran cold and he threw a quick apology over his shoulder as he rushed past her into the refresher, slamming his hand against the control panel to shut the door. The trio in Ren’s bedroom could hear loud retching as Ren’s guts were emptied into the vacc tube.

“He won’t be needing you,” the young officer intoned sadly toward the pretty Twi’lek. The concubine nodded knowingly, but the Muun appeared miffed by the situation.

“Humph!” he snorted, turning away. “Tell Commander Ren we are at his disposal should he change his mind.” The two guests passed as quietly from the room as they had entered, and the young woman was now left alone again in Ren’s quarters. She straightened the bed while she waited for him to return from the refresher.

She could hear the water running and some gargling sounds as Ren seemed to be cleansing his mouth of vomit. She stood erect at the foot of the bed, not at all pleased to be forced to await him.

As the door to the refresher hissed open, he was now clad in a bathrobe and appeared pale and drawn. “What are you still doing here?” he asked in disbelief.

“I’m still here to do what I was sent for,” she replied tightly.

“And what in Hellios could that possibly be, since apparently you’re not the concubine I ordered?” he asked hotly.

“I’m here to do your annual physical,” she responded with restraint.

“My – what??”

“Did you forget it was today, Sir?”

“No, I did not forget!” he replied angrily, consulting his datapad. He double-checked his calendar, and there it showed the appointment was for the following day.

“That’s _tomorrow,_ ” he said between gritted teeth. "You weren’t supposed to be here today!”

He handed her the datapad which she scrutinized in disbelief as Ren turned and began dressing. “Who sent you?” he demanded hotly.

She was completely perplexed. “General Hux sent word to the medbay,” she replied softly, her mind reeling in confusion. “He told Commander Ryzen that we had best move up your appointment since you were leaving for a mission and wouldn’t be here for a couple of days.”

“I was going to skip it,” he retorted. “Hux isn’t supposed to know about this mission anyway, sneaky…” and Ren continued muttering obscenities about Hux under his breath as he pulled on his boots.

Ren realized with a swell of anger: Hux had set him up – purposely orchestrating the circumstances for Ren to have a run-in with the Lieutenant in place of the girl intended for his needs. Hux knew this was a regular habit of Ren's prior to setting off for missions.

The young woman laid the datapad back on Ren’s bed and straightened into parade rest. “My apologies, Commander.” There were tears gathering in her eyes as she struggled to make sense of her emotions – anger, resentment, embarrassment…

Ren met her anguished expression, his own emotions astir.

“What’s your name, Lieutenant?” he asked gently.

“Tana Talurra, Sir,” she answered, choking back tears.

“Talurra, I’m sorry,” he apologized quietly, looking at his hands while he donned his thick leather gloves. “This wasn’t meant to happen.” He met her stare as he finished dressing. “I want you to know I would never knowingly take a woman against her will.” As the words left his lips, he blanched again, turning his gaze away.

“Do you not take the Twi’lek women against their will?” she challenged him lightly.

He flushed with anger. “That…” he began, his words choking in his throat as he pointed an accusing finger at her, “that is different. Those women are born and bred as pleasure slaves, and we compensate them and their families handsomely for the privilege of their presence here. Now,” he straightened and strode across to where his helmet sat on its pedestal, “if you’re quite finished lecturing me about my sex life, I have a mission to execute.”

“Yes, sir,” she saluted, turning to leave.

“Talurra, wait,” he commanded, having second thoughts.

She stopped, still facing the door, and remained in place.

Regretting the entire incident, Ren sought to remedy the situation. Approaching her from behind, he held his hand just inches from her head and whispered in her ear.

“You came to my room to gave me my physical, but I was busy,” he said evenly.

“I… I came to your – your room,” she replied, sounding confused.

“I was occupied. You rescheduled my physical, and you left,” he reiterated.

“I… I was raped… I lost my virginity,” she replied softly.

Frustrated, he tried again. “You changed the date of my physical. Nothing happened between us.”

“I changed… I'll reschedule your physical…” she replied as she bowed her head, holding her temples. Ren could tell his efforts to persuade her with The Force was injuring her mind. He swore softly under his breath.

“You may go, Talurra. Return here in four days,” he commanded.

“I will go…” she nodded. “I will return in four days.”

“Good girl,” he whispered as he watched her disappear into the hallway, heaving a sigh of relief. Guilt and shame washed over him, and to release the unfamiliar and uncomfortable emotions, he sent his datapad crashing into the door behind her.


	2. Chapter 2

(With apologies to Alan Dean Foster)

Almost 26 standard hours after departing from _The Supremacy_ , Ren set the ship down in a dry, dusty plain overlooking a series of conical formations nestled in waving grasses on the planet Lothal. This had to be the place, he thought, consulting his maps before disembarking.

Striding down the ramp of the ship alone, Ren secured his lightsaber to his hip and scanned the area using an ocular scope as his billowing raven cloak flapped in the breeze. He was seeking a pentagonal holocron fabled to have been possessed by the spirit of a Sith. Ren was sure it would lead him to other secrets and greater power, power perhaps to enable him to escape from his present circumstances under the control of Snoke.

Kylo Ren had a hard time admitting it to himself, but he was slowly coming to realize he was not so much the apprentice of Snoke but his slave. All Ren's efforts, every goal in his purview, every moment of his life, was entailed to the dark leader, much, as he’d come to discover through logs and files, as his grandfather had been enslaved to Emperor Palpatine. He had decided he would not suffer his grandfather’s fate, though he often endured soul-shattering doubt in his own abilities to escape. He concluded that he needed help in the form of whatever supernatural resources he could glean from force-imbued relics and artifacts.

Striding through the tall, lithe grasses, Ren focused on a single crevice between two identical conical spires, rocky twins rising from the landscape. There, he saw a slim, metallic object glistening in the sun. As he approached, its outline took shape and Ren realized it was a marker. Inscribed on the plate was a short labelling phrase, spelled out in galactic Basic – “DUME”. Ren didn’t know what it meant, but he was intent on finding out.

Concentrating his abilities on the tall, stony hills, he reached out with The Force, sending waves of energy into the monoliths in an effort to locate the entrance. He felt rumbling from under his feet as the two spires began to twist around and grow taller until finally each one presented a small alcove, one on its right and one on its left, which joined together to reveal a small doorway that Ren observed led down into a staircase.

Tentatively, he descended the stairs, his Force sensitivities on alert for any threatening activity around him. He felt a miniscule beckoning ahead, barely perceptible but steady, just the same. Using his lightsaber to illuminate his path, he walked through caves and tunnels, across land bridges and down embankments, passing fluorescent lichen and rivulets of underground streams until finally, in a small cavern at the end of a particularly tight shaft, he found what he was looking for – a twelve-sided holocron built in a golden frame with a red interior and emanating a deep crimson glow. He felt its dark power as he lifted it from its niche in the far wall of the grotto. He tucked the object in a small pocket inside his cloak, eager to return to his ship to discover its secrets.

Before he could move, though, the same rumbling Ren had heard at the surface began building all around him. He realized he must have triggered some mechanism that was closing the pillars again. He had to escape before he became trapped inside.

Running at breakneck speed, Ren did his best to dodge the tumbling rocks that began falling from the ceiling and walls of the chambers, only to be confronted with a missing land bridge at one point, which forced him to levitate himself across the empty chasm, praying he had enough strength to reach the other side without falling into the abyss.

Scrambling through miles of treacherous pathways, Ren finally arrived back at the stairwell only to find it closed, the former entranceway blocked by walls that weren’t there when he had entered. Sitting for a moment to gather his thoughts, Ren assessed his physical well-being. His uniform was torn on one arm where he’d ripped it rushing through a particularly tight crevasse and gashed it on a rocky outcropping. His left leg had suffered a similar fate, and he realized he must have twisted his right ankle at one point, because now that he was out of fight-or-flight mode, the adrenaline which had suppressed his pain receptors was quickly ebbing and he could feel the swelling and throbbing in the joint. He hurt everywhere, all at once.

Trying his best to ignore his agony and focusing once again with The Force, Ren pictured the opening, remembered how the spires looked rising slowly from the surface, and poured all of his effort into raising the stairway to the surface once again. The miniature mountains barely complied and it was a trial of him versus the ground as he slowly effected his escape. By the time the doorway re-appeared at the top of the stairs, he was nearly exhausted. It was all he could do to stumble out of the cave and collapse on the other side, his foot barely escaping the crushing forces of the rock as the doorway twisted out of sight once again.

After checking the small pouch inside his cloak’s lining to be sure he still possessed the holocron, Ren rose shakily to his feet and headed toward his ship, only to be confronted by a small pack of loth-wolves. Smelling both his blood and his weakness, and perhaps his dark side, the wolves circled the injured Ren, teeth bared and growling.

Nearly bereft of effort and cursing his misfortune, Ren lifted his lightsaber in preparation for battle, scarcely able to wield the weapon, of which the pack animals took note. Gathering what strength he had left, Ren let out a rageful cry, lunging for the large leader, hoping to take him out while frightening the rest of them away. As he battled the head of the pack, its pack-mates nipped at Ren’s ankles and cloak, trying to trip him and barking their discouragement at him. The leader was agile against Ren’s tired attempts to wound it until at last, the crimson blade drove home in the leader’s belly, its pathetic yelps and whines scaring off the rest as they scattered over the horizon.

Ren panted breathlessly, limping on both legs as he trudged slowly toward his Upsilon-class shuttle. Once onboard, he made his way back to his quarters and locked the holocron in a storage bin before he tore off his cloak and boots, collapsing on the bunk. Finally catching his breath, he re-examined his wounds, realizing how much blood he had lost; the wound on his arm was on the inside, severing a large blood vessel and a small pool of blood was beginning to accumulate on his bed.

“Frag,” he muttered, stripping the case off his pillow and pressing the fabric to his wound. A similar situation was occurring with his leg, and he realized he would be unconscious shortly, maybe for good, if he didn’t staunch the bleeding and quickly. He was light-headed and fatigued, and all he wanted to do was sleep…

He woke hours later, lying in a pool of blood on the floor, an alarm blaring in his head. Was that a headache or was there someone actually trying to reach him?

“Yes?” Ren barked out at the comm system, hoping the voice-activation would pick him up in his awkward location.

“Commander Ren, this is Lieutenant Talurra,” a feminine voice responded.

“Yeah, so?” the exhausted Ren replied.

Silence greeted him for a moment, and then: “Commander, do you remember me?”

“Why would I remember you, Lieutenant?” he demanded, exasperated to be dealing with protocol during his current crisis. “What do you want?”

“I wanted to confirm your physical for tomorrow,” Talurra replied stiffly.

Physical? What physical, Ren wondered to himself. What was she talking about? Suddenly, the last couple of days came back into focus. He’d been with Talurra before leaving for Lothal. She was the medic he’d…

“Commander, are you ok?” the young woman inquired. “You sound tired, I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“Well, you did,” he answered groggily, “but that’s probably a good thing,” he gasped, trying to gather enough strength and breath to speak. “I need help, Talurra.”

“What seems to be the problem?” she inquired.

“I’m wounded, I can’t leave here,” he answered her, his voice full of shame and defeat.

She suddenly became concerned; this was Commander Kylo Ren and he was in danger.

“Where is ‘here,’ Sir?”

“Lothal… but you can’t tell anyone. Just get a small shuttle and come meet me here. I need help getting my injuries patched up so I can come home… and I need blood…”

Realizing he was likely in shock, Talurra panicked. Lothal was over a day’s flight away.

“Commander, you must get some fluids into your system,” she advised as she moved into a private room off the main patient holding area of the medbay, not wanting her conversation with Ren to be overheard. “Have you any emergency rations or stimulants?”

“Yes,” he replied weakly.

“Good, I want you to drink as much fluid as you can, and inject one unit of stimulant. I’ll lock onto these coordinates and leave here as soon as I procure a vessel.”

“I’ll do my best,” he replied tiredly. “Ren out.”

Closing down her end of the comm, Talurra tried to figure out how she was going to leave _The Supremacy_ without drawing attention until a thought occurred to her. She vaguely remembered meeting the Muun, Qaderos, in Ren's quarters as he brought a young woman to the Commander for a conjugal visit, a practice Talurra found distasteful. Nonetheless, this meant the man was probably trusted by Ren. He was not a First Order officer, so he was free to come and go more freely than the ship’s staff, maybe even having access to his own transport. It was worth a shot, and Ren’s life was on the line.

Rushing to Qaderos’ quarters, Talurra stopped on the way there to grab a crash kit and two survival packs, one for her and one for Ren. After what seemed like a lifetime, she finally arrived on the lower level where Qaderos and his girls resided. She mashed the door button repeatedly, feeling an unfamiliar level of panic. Being a medic for four years, this was not a sensation she had felt in many moons.

“Yes,” Qaderos answered, appearing annoyed but his eyes lighting up at the sight of the trim young woman. “My dear, I only recruit on Firstdays, but in this case, I could make an exception,” he said greedily, his hands clasping in anticipation of the young woman joining his harem.

“I’m not here for that, Qaderos,” she responded stiffly, “I need your help.”

“Well, your wardrobe could use some tweaking, it’s not very tantalizing—”

“It’s Kylo Ren,” she whispered angrily, “let me in, I need to speak to you in private.”

“In that case,” said the tall male, ushering her in, “right this way.” He whisked her past Twi’leks, humans and other assorted pleasure women who leered at her with jealousy and suspicion, taking her to his office where they closed the door.

“What can I do for His Highness?” asked the calculating panderer.

“I need a transport to retrieve him from Lothal,” Talurra answered breathlessly.

“Lothal? Whatever in stars name is he doing there?” Qaderos inquired.

“It’s neither your business nor mine,” she responded, “but he’s in danger and he asked me to come get him – in secret. I can’t take a registered transport, I need you to help me get a transport off-ship and quickly. I have no time to lose.”

Qaderos registered the fear and desperation in her eyes; but this was more than duty. He’d figured out what had occurred between Ren and the young lady – she was now flesh-bonded to the Commander, like it or not, and she was feeling the pull of her connection to the young man. Not that Qaderos could blame her. Even many of his more experienced girls found themselves drawn to the powerful leader, some crying themselves to sleep over him…

“Very well,” the Muun replied, “but I expect to be remunerated for my efforts.”

“Don’t worry,” she replied, eyeing him distrustfully, “you’ll get what’s coming to you.”

Qaderos sneered at her. “Young lady, I know you and your staff hold a great deal of disdain for me and my girls, but much like you, we perform a valuable service for the physical welfare of our leaders.”

“I would hardly call what you do a ‘service’, Qaderos, but I don’t have time to argue semantics with you. Just please,” she pleaded, “get me the ship and get me out of here.”

“As you wish, young lady,” he said as he rose, waving her through the office door and into a side room where he handed her a set of clothing hanging in a closet.

“What is this?” she asked disgustedly at the revealing red garments.

“Something to help you make your escape,” he leered at her.

Gritting her teeth, she realized with resentment that she couldn’t very well march out to the hanger in full dress blacks and hop onto a ship without someone asking her questions.

“Thank you,” she said with grudging gratitude. “Would you give me some privacy so I can change?”

“Of course!” Qaderos exclaimed, retreating from the small changing room and closing the door behind him.

Folding her uniform down as small as possible, she tucked it into one of the packs and slipped on the scanty outfit. Her breasts threatened to escape from the bottom and top of the bralette, and the pants hugged her hips so tightly, she was afraid she’d need to remove her underwear. She decided it was good enough to get her on the ship, but one last touch was needed. She pulled the many pins from her tight, regimented updo, her auburn locks cascading down her back. She blushed as she took in the sight of herself in the hologlass – she was seductive without any intention of trying. Feeling the pressure of time, Talurra threw the pins and her uniform cap into her pack, gathered up her bags, and fairly raced out to meet Qaderos.

Giving her a momentary glare of appreciation for her form, Qaderos considered the flimsy outfit for moment, rubbing his chin thoughtfully and muttering, “Maybe something in a print…”[1] Exasperated, Talurra glared at Qaderos, who ushered her down a back hallway to a service corridor. Clicking on his comm unit, he called for the ship.

“Zenaf, come in, our pick-up is ready.”

“I can’t take a co-pilot,” she said, re-iterating her need for secrecy.

“Don’t worry, young lady,” he reassured her. “Zenaf will escort you and me to the ship, where I will leave you at the ramp while we create a diversion. The deck crew will be none the wiser.”

Despite her misgivings about his occupation, she was grateful for his help.

“Very well, let’s go.”

The two of them met Zenaf at the entrance to the hangar, Talurra skulking behind Qaderos in an attempt to avoid being recognized.

“This young lady requires transport,” Qaderos informed the Lasat pilot who approached them. “We are going to help her to the ship, and then you and I are going to stage the same diversion we did at that gambling hall on Elerion.”

“Gotcha, boss,” Zenaf winked at Qaderos, as the two men flanked the young officer, guiding her toward a small, dilapidated Eta-class shuttle.

Talurra’s eyes widened at the condition of the ship.

“What a piece of junk!” she exclaimed almost to herself.

Zenaf chucked her on the shoulder. “Don’t let ‘er looks fool ya, love,” he smiled broadly. “Old Zen’s got ‘er tricked out a bit, eh what?”

“If you say so, I just have to get going. Has she got hyper-drive?”

“Enough to get you to the Outer Rim and back, I’d say,” Qaderos reassured her. “Now get going while Zenaf and I distract the deck officer.”

“Thank you, Qaderos,” she nodded, “and you, Zen. Wish me luck.”

The two nodded at her as she ascended the ramp, then began quarrelling about stars knew what. Talurra found the ship was already powered up and while the deck officer and his troops came over to investigate the dust-up, Talurra lifted the shuttle out of the docking bay and past the magnetic shield, intent on bringing Kylo Ren back alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Alan Dean Foster, “Splinter of the Mind’s Eye.”


	3. Chapter 3

Tana Talurra thought she would never arrive at Lothal, so many hours was her ship aloft. During the flight, she changed back into her uniform, trying to ignore the wrinkles caused by its being stuffed into the survival pack.

Tana was fastidious in her habits, and a wrinkled uniform went against the grain of her character. She was a dedicated, loyal, hard-working officer. Having been in the corps for several years, she was committed to her career and the First Order. It was her whole life, and she was willing to make great sacrifices on her own part to gain more success, including helping Kylo Ren. She thought of herself as a heroine for her efforts and was hoping a promotion would be in order once the travail was over.

Finally, she arrived at the coordinates sent her by Ren. She could see his shuttle in its landing configuration but the ramp was up. She was hoping he would be conscious enough to grant her entrance. Lifting her comm, she signaled the leader, hoping against hope he was still alive.

“Lieutenant Talurra to Commander Ren, come in,” she stammered breathlessly, her fear breaking through her façade of bravery. Silence greeted her, so she called again, this time nearly frantic as she tried in vain to remain calm. “Commander Ren, this is Lieutenant Talurra, come in!” After a few more nerve-wracking moments, the ramp began to lower and a tired voice broke through the comm unit. “It’s about time, Talurra,” Ren’s deep voice rumbled across the comm. Tana’s voice broke with gratitude, and she nearly wept with relief. “Coming aboard, Commander.”

Tana did her best to pull herself together, unwilling to have Ren see her so emotional. As she strode down the hallway, looking for the dark knight, she heard him from the main quarters. “Back here, Lieutenant,” his voice weakly calling to her.

She sped through the doorway to find him lying in his bunk with sticky, drying blood saturating the sheets and his eyes set deeply purple with exhaustion and dehydration. “Gods,” she muttered under breath, wondering how he was still alive. “We’ve got to get you a medical transport out of here.”

“Can’t,” he replied weakly, “they can’t know I’m here. You _are_ my medical transport,” he replied, smiling weakly.

“They who?” she asked incredulously.

“Supreme Leader… Hux…” his head lolled to the side as his eyes closed, the last remnants of his strength sapped by speaking.

“We’ll see about that,” she muttered, starting an intravenous line to rehydrate his body with blood and water. She thought of sending a distress signal but thought better of it after what Ren had told her. Instead, she worked tirelessly to patch his wounds, sewing nanosutures into his lacerations and applying synthskin to bond the flesh back together before salving it all with bacta, then running a tissue repair on his ankle before wrapping it. She couldn’t believe what bad shape he was in and wondered what had befallen him on his journey.

Finally, she mopped up the floor with baffles made for fuel spills, the equipment doing an excellent job on the bloody mess and then rolling him aside to strip the stained linens from the bed which he barely registered, so fatigued was he. Reeling from lack of sleep and the efforts to tend his wounds, Tana sat down, falling asleep on the floor near Kylo, the two of them overcome with exhaustion…

After what seemed like days, Tana awoke, feeling a nudge to her shoulder.

“Talurra, wake up,” Ren demanded.

“Hmm? Oh!” she sat up with a start. Ren was trying to rise from the bunk and frustrated with his circumstances.

“I need a shower… and so do you…” he said, wrinkling his nose. She nodded, embarrassed. Qaderos’ shuttle had no refresher so her long trek here was without access to any hygienic facilities.

“Let me help you up,” she offered. After removing his IV line and bandaging his arm, Tana rose to her feet. Ren leaned on her arm as he stood, roaring in pain as he put weight on his ankle for the first time.

“Didn’t you treat this?” he asked testily as he looked at his bandaged foot.

“Yes, but I don’t have the best tools to work with, I’m sorry, Sir,” she offered apologetically, looking up into his angry visage. His face softened slightly, aware he wouldn’t even be alive right now if it weren’t for her. She gulped as he stared down at her, his voice lowering. “Yes, fine, thank you, Talurra,” he conceded. “Now let’s get cleaned up.”

Checking the water reserve, Ren grimaced. “There’s only enough here for one short shower,” he said regretfully.

“Doesn’t this ship have a sonic shower?” she asked.

“No, it’s built with all the power dedicated to defense and speed, not pleasure.”

“It’s fine, Sir, I can try to find a stream somewhere close by to clean up,” she said, checking the proximity charts to find a body of natural water.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Talurra,” he admonished her. “Look, let’s just shower together, I think we can both fit,” he pondered, although remembering his bulk in comparison to her as well as most facilities. She swallowed hard at his suggestion, finding herself unwilling to be next to his nakedness, but also unwilling to argue with him. “Very well, Sir,” she agreed.

The two of them tried to wash as quickly as they could, racing against the rapidly dwindling water supply while trying not to brush up against one another. They kept their backs to each other, but Kylo could sense her stimulation due to his proximity – he was dealing with a similar level of excitement himself and fought to keep his erection at bay as long as he could.

Talurra jumped out of the shower before he finished, scurrying out of his quarters to dress in private in the cabin. Realizing she’d forgotten the survival pack containing her underthings in his quarters, she tried to sneak back in before he noticed, but it was too late.

Ren was still nude as he reached into one of the packs in search of clean clothing. Instead, he came up with the slinky pleasure outfit Qaderos had given Tana to use during her escape.

“What is this?” asked Kylo slyly.

“It’s nothing,” Tana sputtered, her cheeks rising with redness. “Give it back, I have to return it to Qaderos.”

“Qaderos, huh?” Kylo asked knowingly. “Put it on,” he demanded, extending the outfit toward her.

“Don’t force me to do that,” she beseeched between gritted teeth.

“I’m not forcing you,” he retorted, his visage deadly serious and his erection rising again. “If I was, you wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. I’m asking you. Don’t make me ask again,” he threatened her.

She left the room with the garment, returning several moments later with her arms barely able to cover her breasts and belly as she stared at the floor, trying to hide her near-nakedness. Ren was leaning back in the bed, tucking his arms behind his head and surveying her from top to bottom.

“Look at me,” he now commanded her.

She struggled to look him in the face, the effort causing her severe discomfort.

“Please,” she begged quietly.

“Please, what?” he asked with dark intent.

“Please, Sir, let me go!” she pleaded desperately in supplication.

“I don’t think I will, Talurra,” he purred. “Now _dance_.”

Steeling herself and committing to her obedience to the First Order at all costs, Talurra clumsily tried to imitate the graceful Twi’lek dancers she’d seen on the holovisions. She moved her hips slowly, her toes making small circles on the floor as she tried to use her arms to hide her figure.

“Put your arms up, I want to see all of you,” he instructed her, well aware of her subversive tactics.

She complied begrudgingly, crossing them over her head but then turning her back to him so he could observe her plump backside which he had so brazenly spanked not three days ago. He began stroking his hard cock, pleasuring himself as he appreciated her figure. She was unlike the simpering pleasure slaves who faked their desire for him. Although this woman seemed to despise him, he could sense she held a certain amount of attraction toward him at the same time, begrudging though it may be.

“Come here,” he commanded her.

Tana stopped dancing and came to stand next to him at his bedside. She glanced at his groin, then quickly looked away, fear rising in her eyes.

“It’s okay, Talurra,” he tried reassuring her as he looked at her sideways, taking her hands in his. “You’re only going to have sex with me if you’re willing, understand?”

She nearly retreated at his comment, but held fast to her position. He could sense her reluctance but was going to try persuading her all the same.

“I know you’re as aroused as I am,” he said slyly as he stroked her hands, working hard to seduce her. “What are you afraid of?”

“What?” she sputtered. “I’m- I’m not afraid,” she gulped, trying to pull away.

“You’re lying,” he said, “your hands are trembling.”

“Shouldn’t we be returning to _The Supremacy_?” she asked, trying to change the subject.

“I answer to no one,” he responded, “I return on _my_ schedule, no one else’s.”

“Well, I answer to many people, and I am away without leave,” she replied. “It’s bad enough that I’ll be disciplined when we return. I want to get back as quickly as possible and take my punishment.”

“Oh, I can give you punishment if that’s what you desire,” he whispered huskily as he sat up, his legs straddling hers and making it difficult for her to move. She was now pinned between his massive thighs and the wall behind her.

His hands played with her buttocks, slapping her playfully at first, then more forcefully as he sensed her rising passion.

“You liked it when I spanked you just now, didn’t you?” he growled at her.

“No!” she retorted angrily. “I’m not some naughty little girl!” she exclaimed, regretfully realizing just after she’d said it how preposterous it sounded.

Kylo chuckled as another particularly stinging slap met her butt cheeks.

“Oh, I think you are!” he smiled at her playfully.

Tana gritted her teeth. “Sir,” she tried reasoning with him as a fellow officer, “I am here to serve you in furtherance of First Order business, nothing more.”

His eyes shot up in mock astonishment. “Oh, forgive me, Lieutenant! I didn’t realize I had an aspiring General on my hands! Well, don’t let me hold you up from your very important duties!” He rose suddenly, backing her into the wall and glaring at her in anger. “I hope you choke on your ambition,” he whispered at her, his face a mask of fury. “Now, GET OUT OF MY QUARTERS!”

Tana fairly ran from the room, her hair flying behind her and tears streaming down her cheeks. She wanted to change back into her uniform before returning to Qaderos’ ship, but her things were still in Ren’s quarters. Resigned to her circumstances, she packed up what little she had and headed back to the shuttle still wearing the ridiculous costume. She was indignant that her personal boundaries had been violated to such an extent.

As she strapped herself in for take-off, the business-like harness in stark contrast to the outlandish slave-wear she was sporting, she saw the engines of Kylo’s shuttle roar to life, the massive wings extending into place as it flew out of the atmosphere. She didn’t know if he was physically capable of making the trip back by himself, but she couldn’t stop him now. He was acting like a petulant child, and she almost hoped something horrible happened on the way back, just to teach him a lesson.


	4. Chapter 4

# Chapter 4

Arriving back at _The Supremacy_ , Ren limped as discreetly as he could from his shuttle, intent on making his way directly to his quarters without notice. He moved slowly, trying to appear as if he was casually strolling the hallways, but those familiar with his behavior aboard the gigantic spacecraft were accustomed to his quick, stalking stride, and they made a mental note that he was injured. Nevertheless, he passed unimpeded until he arrived back at his quarters and collapsed on the bed, the small naps he’d been afforded by autopilot during the return flight doing little to restore his strength.

He slept for hours until his quarter’s comm unit toned in the darkness. He could barely hear it at first but then as he became more conscious, he realized he wasn’t waking from a normal night’s sleep ‑ he was still dressed in his entire regalia, cape to boots. Rising quickly and trying to pull himself together, he barked in annoyance at his visitor. “Come!”

Qaderos was on the other side of the doorway, his obsequious persona ready to see what favors he could glean in exchange for his role in Ren’s rescue.

“My Lord Commander, how well you look!” Qaderos flattered him. “We were so worried about you!”

“Save it,” Ren shot back, “I know you helped Talurra, but I also know it wasn’t your idea and you don’t do anything unless there’s something in it for you, so what do you want?” he demanded, peeling off his thick black gloves.

“A small favor to be sure, My Lord, but, if you could see your way clear to asking General Hux to install a few more refreshers in our quarters–“

“No.”

“Or perhaps some additional private quarters–“

“No.”

“And we could always use some extra furniture for the foyer–“

“I’ll see what I can do,” Ren finally relented as he sat on the bed, doffing his stiff, bantha-hide boots.

“My gratitude is without end, My Lord,” Qaderos half-bowed as he saw himself out.

“Neither is your greed,” Ren muttered under his breath after the door closed.

After stripping off his dusty uniform, the young commander loped exhaustedly into the shower, leaning against the back wall and letting the steaming water flood down his tired, dusty body. The small shower he’d had back on the shuttle had done little to help him truly clean up. As he remembered the encounter and the resulting fight between himself and Tana, he experienced a rush of mixed emotions.

He soaped himself with the sponge, carefully favoring his injuries, and thought about how attentive she’d tried to be toward him, how devoted she was to her duty, but then how she cringed at his touch and how unwilling she was to provide him the physical relief he requested. He’d never had to make an effort with women before ‑ they came when they were told and did as they were bid. They didn’t question, they didn’t shrink away, and they didn’t refuse him. They _never_ refused him. Yet, here was this woman, balking at pleasuring him, fighting him even ‑ and not in the fun way he usually enjoyed; the sweaty, tense wrestling matches where he overpowered the female as she tried to bite him or kick and fight… his manhood was swelling at the very thought of it.

No, this girl wanted to dictate what happened to her, as well as when and how. Who did she think she was?! He was _Kylo Ren_ , for suns’ sake, he was one step away from the highest position in the First Order! She needed to know her place, and it was where he told her.

What he couldn’t admit to himself was that her refusal of him had hurt his ego, and the rejection raised fears in him he couldn’t confront: that he was inadequate, that he was unwanted and unneeded, the same feelings he grew up with.

He punched at the shower wall, leaving a dent in the stainless metal sheeting as blood trickled from his cracked knuckles. The red liquid dripped onto the shower floor, mixing with the soap bubbles that trailed down the drain along with some tears he was unable to hold back any longer. Giving in to his anguish, he howled in rage, infuriated by her mistreatment of him until he remembered what he’d done to her in the first place ‑ how he’d taken something so delicate and so precious from her. He choked on his sobs, trying to reconcile the entire chain of events so far, unsure where he would go from here.

He hadn’t long to consider his options as his quarters’ door notification sounded again. Exasperated, he slammed the faucet closed, and yelled at the door while he dried off.

“I’ll be just a moment!” he yelled at the comm system.

He rushed to dry off and dressed hurriedly in a thin, black tunic and matching pants. As he approached to answer the door, he continued toweling his long, ebony locks and wrapped the damp cloth around his neck, ready to tell Qaderos he wasn’t giving him anything more.

“Yes, what?” he responded brusquely as the door slid open to reveal Tana. “Lieutenant,” Ren scrambled to collect himself, obfuscating his emotions. “And what can I do for _you_ ,” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Tana was non-plussed at his response. ‘Typical,’ she thought, ‘like a spoiled little boy, he’s just going to act like he never threw a temper tantrum and go on like nothing happened.’ Tana decided that two can play that game.

“It’s Thirday at thirteen-hundred. I’m here for your physical, which I’m sure you remembered this time,” she replied officiously.

“Of course,” he lied stiffly, unwilling to give her a reason to admonish him. “Come in.”

The young woman entered bearing a small cart containing some laboratory equipment, medical supplies and testing tools.

“Would you lie down for me please, Commander?” she asked evenly.

“Fine,” he conceded, flopping onto his bed.

Tana approached him with her scanner, dialing in some settings as she peeked at his charts on her datapad.

“And how are your wounds today?” she asked solicitously. “Did you have a chance to change the dressings?”

Looking at her sheepishly, he admitted, “I hadn’t quite got around to that, you came just as I was getting out of the shower.”

“I see,” she said, noting his damp tresses. “Let’s take care of that before we do anything else.”

Taking his injured arm in her hands, she first noticed the bruised and bloody knuckles. He glared at her, daring her to say something to him about the fresh wounds. Instead, she merely bandaged them, then inspected the sutures and synthskin of his previous injuries to ensure they were bonding acceptably before applying some bacta and dressings to the wound. The same was done for his leg, and finally she inspected his ankle for swelling. The joint was still warm and swollen, and she wrapped it anew with a brace after running the tissue mender over it a few minutes.

Neither of them uttered a word in the tense silence between them until finally, Ren spoke up.

“I’m sorry, Tana,” he breathed in almost a whisper.

Looking up at him from where she was tending his foot, she thought she saw true sincerity in his eyes, and it surprised her. She wasn’t completely trusting he meant it, but she was willing to give him a chance.

“Well, thank you for that,” she replied quietly. “You made me feel like a common whore, and I won’t have it. You have other girls for that, but that’s not me,” she said, turning away to fetch her scanner. “Quite frankly, it shouldn’t be them either,” she added in disgust. “Don’t you have women your own caliber to have relations with?”

“Look!” he said, rising from the bed and shoving a finger in her face, “I didn’t ask you to tell me who I can fuck and who I can’t! I didn’t mean to make you feel bad, but if you’re just going to act like some pompous bitch–“

Tana set her jaw and turned her back on him again as she began packing up her equipment.

“Where do you think _you’re_ going?” he demanded, his voice full of fury as he spun her around by her shoulder and backed her into the cart, grappling her by her wrists.

“Somewhere you can’t talk to me like this,” she hissed in reply as she struggled against the tight grip he had on her.

“Oh, no, you don’t,” he threatened as he pulled her toward the bed, “you’re going to learn to treat me the way I deserve to be treated!”

“Well in that case,” she responded as she tried to kick him in his groin, a move he deftly blocked.

“Oh!” he replied, an evil smile blooming on his face as his cock began to swell, “you want to fight!”

Panicking at his malevolent expression, Tana continued trying to kick at him but now screamed in fear as she struggled to escape his iron grip on her tiny wrists.

“Please!” she begged as she began crying, “let me go!”

“Oh, now it’s _please_ , is it?” Ren demanded as he slammed her into the mattress, kneeling over her and pinning her down, his hard member pressing against her thigh. “I thought you wanted to fight!” he taunted her.

Tana feared she was actually in danger now. She had wanted to stand up for herself but she may have taken things too far. Ren could sense her regret and fear, but it only served to inspire him to torment her further when her struggles stimulated him.

“Commander, please stop, I don’t want to have to report you,” she threatened, thinking that regulations could be her only recourse.

“Report me?” he sneered as he began unfastening her jacket. “Why would you report me? For punishing an insubordinate officer? To whom would you report me, anyway?” He laughed in derision, truly amused that she thought telling Snoke he’d molested her would garner him anything but a congratulations.

Her eyes went wild at the realization that there was only one person on The Supremacy, maybe two, who had any influence over Kylo Ren, and neither were likely to care about her pathetic complaints. She was terrified, feelings of fear that seemed like bad memories clawing at the back of her mind, this scene seeming eerily familiar to her.

Looking down at her, at the way she cringed under him, he began to feel less passion than he did remorse as he sensed that the memories he’d tried suppressing in her mind were creeping back into her consciousness.

This wasn’t how he wanted her: he wanted Tana to be willing, wanted her begging for his touch, truly wanting him, Kylo – not for what she was forced to give him in the form of stolen passion. He couldn’t take her like this, not again.

“Get up,” he ordered her as he stood and stomped toward the door, ready to open it for her. “Get out of my room,” he commanded her as she froze, unsure what to do. “I said, GET OUT!” he ordered her at the top of her lungs.

She scrambled to collect her things, emotionally whiplashed by his reaction. She rushed to quickly collect all of her belongings and raced toward the exit, escaping his quarters through the door he opened for her as she approached. He refused to look at her when she hesitated as she departed, nearly slamming the hatch closed on the cart she pulled behind her.

Standing in the hallway stunned and confused, Tana tried to pull herself together before heading back to her post. Troopers passing by gave her sidelong glances as if they suspected what may have occurred during her visit, especially when they caught sight of her open jacket. She deftly reassembled her disheveled appearance before taking a deep breath and heading back to the medbay.

Arriving back at her post, she put her equipment away and uploaded her datapad's files on Ren before she sought out the refresher. Once alone, she broke down in sobs, overwhelmed by all that had befallen her. She was confused; she didn’t know why, but she was sorry they’d fought and he’d kicked her out. She was worried about him, wanted to see him again, wanted to tend to his welfare, but why? He was tough, he could clearly take care of himself. Besides, he was cruel, angry and rude. However, something made her want to submit to him, to give him what he demanded.

A knock at the refresher door startled her from her internal analysis.

“Are you okay in there, Talurra?” a female voice inquired. Tana could tell it was Captain Yeeth Parteya, her supervisor. The older woman was like a big sister to her, so it was no surprise she was inquiring after Tana’s well-being.

“Yes, I’ll be out in a moment, Captain,” Tana replied, sniffling to clear her nose and wiping her eyes clear of tears.

“And when you are, I want to see you in my office,” the captain chided her.

Tana heard the captain’s footfalls recede down the hallway as she checked herself over in the mirror. She was clearly anxious and there was little she could do about it except try to shake it off. After all, she was a First Order officer. Only the best made it, the rest were drafted to the Stormtrooper corps. Besides - emotional upset wasn’t normally a factor in her personality owing to her experience in emergency medicine. She’d handled traumatic injuries, hordes of wounded, and long days and nights of treating non-stop injuries. Why was she letting this rattle her so?

She splashed some water on her face and straightened her shoulders, intent on returning to her duties with no one the wiser. The only thing she needed to handle now was her supervisor’s punishment for abandoning her post.

Tana strode purposefully to Captain Parteya’s small office, no more than a closet really, but providing a certain amount of privacy for confidential discussions nonetheless.

Seeing Tana arrive, Parteya pointed at the chair across from her with a stylus. “Sit down, Talurra,” the captain's voice a mixture of aggravation and disappointment. “Where were you yesterday?” Parteya demanded of her, though her tone indicated she already knew.

“I was off-ship, Captain.”

“I know that, Talurra. _Where_?” she pressed.

“I – I don’t know if I can tell you,” Tana conceded quietly.

“And why is that?” the Captain asked, becoming even more agitated with Tana’s lack of cooperation.

“Because the person I went to meet ordered me not to,” she answered, fiddling with her datapad.

The Captain reached over to Tana, snatched the datapad from the young medic’s shaking hands and slammed it down on the desk.

“You will tell me NOW where you have been, or I will put you in the brig for four weeks with no pay and a tour of duty in the recycling bays!” the Captain threatened her.

Tana had reached her limit as the past couple of days finally caught up with her. The rape she wasn’t consciously aware she’d experienced, the lack of sleep, the confrontations with Ren, it was all too much for the young woman. Maybe having some time off in the brig would actually be a welcome escape, Tana thought. She stood up, saluted Captain Parteya and said, “With all due respect, Captain – I will not.”

Captain Parteya shook her head and sadly said, “Talurra, I never thought I’d see the day I’d have a discipline issue with you.” At that, the Captain lifted her wristcomm and called for the duty officer. “ST-5486, this is Parteya in medbay. Please come to my office.”

As Tana stood waiting for the trooper to retrieve her, tears welled up in her eyes and threatened to spill over. She fought admirably for control, looking at the ceiling in an effort to move them out of her field of vision before they trickled down her cheeks as she set her jaw hard against her circumstances.

The captain explained the infraction to the trooper and handed Tana over to his charge.

“Talurra, I hope you change your mind soon. I hate sending you away, but I can’t brook insubordination in my crew. I just can’t.”

“I understand, Captain,” Tana almost whispered, regretting that she was disappointing her superior and friend in such a manner. “I wish I could obey you, I really do.”

When the trooper departed with Tana in custody, a pair of manacles painfully pulling her arms behind her, several of her colleagues took note of the incident and whispered as they pretended to be carrying out their normal duties. She didn’t blame them; nothing this interesting had happened in the medbay in months, but at the same time she was ashamed. This was going to damage her reputation and even worse, her chances for promotion; she hoped her obedience to Ren was worth it.


	5. Chapter 5

Is this ‘somewhere I can’t talk to you like that?’ Ren asked with a smirk on his face as he descended the steps into Tana’s tiny cell in the forward detention unit, referencing their earlier argument.

Startled from her semi-slumber, she leaned up from her position on the hard metal bunk to rest on her elbow. “I was hoping it was,” she shot back, a look of derision on her tired face.

“That’s too bad,” Ren admonished her. “And here I am to rescue you.”

“I don’t need rescuing,” she bluffed as she lay down again, turning her back on him.

“Really?” he questioned her. “Because two weeks in the brig doesn’t seem to have agreed with you. I don’t see the next two weeks going any better. Would you care to see?” Ren asked as he pulled a datapad from his tunic and knelt next to the bunk.

Reaching over her shoulder to show her how she looked in the pad’s camera, Tana was shocked to discover she had become pale and drawn, the fat pads in her cheeks withering away. She was actually gaunt.

“I know why you’re in here,” he said softly.

“You think you do, but you don’t!” she hollered at him, shoving the datapad away.

“So, your loyalty to me has nothing to do with it.”

She couldn’t lie. It was. It was all she’d thought about, ruminated over for the last couple of weeks. How the commitment she’d made to keep his confidentiality had cost her so much.

“Let me tell you what it does have to do with,” he responded to her silence, “it shows me that you’re worthy of taking out of here and with me on my next mission.”

With that she sat up ram-rod straight, a look of shock on her face. She stared at him. “Are you mad?” she demanded.

“Not at the moment, but I am getting rather annoyed with you.”

“I’m being reprimanded because of your LAST mission. I think once is enough.”

“That punishment has come,” he said with finality, “to an end, along with your position as a ship’s medic.”

She looked at him in confusion. “I’m being decommissioned?” she demanded in disbelief.

“No,” he responded, “you’re being promoted. To _my_ division. I’m taking your commission with me on _The Finalizer_.”

She tried to consider all the implications that came with a lateral transfer such as this. It would undo all the work she’d put into her career, all the time spent working towards promotion. She was disappointed, unable to reconcile her release with true freedom.

“You’ll have _more_ freedom,” he advised, searching her feelings, “but more responsibility as well. You’ll need to be a field medic in addition to serving as my personal physician, and as you can see, I get into more than my fair share of scrapes.” He tucked the datapad back into his tunic, awaiting her answer expectantly as he crossed his arms in front of him.

“I’ve never been a field medic,” she replied. “I’ve never dealt in battlefield medicine!”

“Then you’ll learn. Your lessons begin today. Unless,” he cocked an eye at her, “you’d rather stay here and waste away?”

She considered his offer, mulling it over in her mind as he grew impatient.

Becoming short-tempered, Ren stalked over to her where he stared down from his great height. “I’m not accustomed to waiting for answers,” he warned her. “Either join me, or enjoy your days in ignominy, because there’s precious little left for you back in that medbay.”

He was right, and Tana knew it. The memory of her colleagues’ accusatory stares following her out of the medical suite filled her with shame and embarrassment. She couldn’t go back; her pride wouldn’t let her.

“Fine,” she spat at him, “but I won’t be bullied by you. Just know that now,” she warned him, rising to look him in the eye.

“Obey me, and you won’t have to,” he retorted as he turned to leave. Looking back, he softened. “One of my team will be by to collect you and take you to get cleaned up and start your lessons. We leave next Fifthday at oh-eight-hundred.”

And with that, he turned in a swirl of cloak and stalked from the cell, leaving Tana to contemplate her future and its sudden turn of fate.

~~~~~~

Lying on the hard metal shelf that served as her bunk, feeling cold and tired, Tana considered her options. She had no idea where she’d be going if she decided to take Ren up on his offer. Or was it really more of a command than an offer? Was it worth sticking it out in the brig two more weeks, or was he right – she really had nothing to go back to? Captain Parteya hadn’t sent any communications or come by her cell to visit since her arrest. No one had. Truth be told, Tana had stepped on a few toes during her ambitious climb for achievement and there was probably more than one colleague who wasn’t sorry to see the back of her.

A racking cough overcame her, drawing against what little strength she had left. Dammit, but it was cold in here. They’d kept her cell frightfully chilly and fed her considerably less calories than she was used to, but she knew why – it kept prisoners docile and compliant. If they were too tired to fight, they didn’t pose much of a problem. She’d slept most of the past two weeks, mulling the turn of events and her interactions with Ren over and over in her mind, trying to make sense of all of it. Why was she so unable to forget him? It was almost as if she could smell him in her hair…

Banging on the cell door startled her and she sat up, worried Ren had returned and was rescinding his offer. She didn’t know why anybody would bother to knock when she wasn’t able to turn them away. “Come,” she rasped, her voice dry and hoarse.

The hatch slid up to reveal a tall, dangerous-looking trooper in a set of gleaming chrome armor.

“Get up,” the trooper ordered her, a tone of disdain tinging the feminine voice.

The stormtrooper was nearly as tall as Ren, and sounded almost as dangerous. She filled the doorway and Tana wasn’t prepared to argue with her.

“Ma’am?” Tana questioned her as she rose from the bunk, dizziness overtaking her and nearly sending her crashing to her knees.

“Get your… well, I guess you haven’t got any ‘things’, so just get yourself together and let’s go.”

Tana pulled on her boots and hat and buttoned her jacket, determined to walk out of her jail cell with some level of dignity.

“Where are we going?” Tana asked as they ascended the steps out of the cramped cell.

The stormtrooper ignored her, leading the young officer past the guards to a lift at the end of the gangway. They didn’t seem ready to stop her, so she assumed this must be her release.

“What do I call you?” Tana pressed, trying to make some sort of connection with the trooper.

“Captain Phasma, and that’s all you need to know for now,” the woman replied with finality.

“Yes, Captain,” Tana complied as they entered the lift together. Neither spoke as they rose twenty-four levels to disembark at the executive suites where Tana had never ventured before. She followed Phasma out of the lift and was rapidly losing energy as she struggled to keep up with the tall trooper’s long strides. They made their way down an extended hallway full of conference rooms, offices and other administrative facilities. Finally, they arrived at a large corner office overlooking the starboard thrusters while a distinguished, middle-aged gentleman rose from him desk.

“I’ll take it from here, Phasma,” the officer directed.

“Very well, Colonel,” she said before leaving the quiet chamber, the door softly hissing shut behind her swirling cape.

Tana saluted the Colonel, unsure whom she was facing.

“Sit down, Lieutenant,” the Colonel ordered her.

“Thank you, Sir,” she replied, grateful for the chance to rest. She was in no condition to be running all over the ship after the last two weeks of physical neglect.

“You look… unwell,” the Colonel observed, his eye roaming over her appearance with a look of contempt.

“Yes, sir, I’m sorry, I haven’t had access to many facilities lately,” she answered as she tried to smooth down the wrinkles on her jacket, wondering if he knew where she had been.

“Ren tells me you’re to be trained in battlefield medicine before we prepare _The Finalizer_ for duty,” the words rolling off his tongue in a clipped Imperial accent. He must be a hold-over from the old days like her parents, she realized. He reached into his desk to obtain a bowl of fruit which he placed on the desk in front of her, then selected a particularly juicy meiloorun for himself and took a bite of it, the juice dripping down his cleft chin.

“I… I’m not sure about that…” she stammered, her eyes fixated on the fruit in front of her as she wavered in her answer. She still hadn’t been ready to commit to whether she was going to take Ren up on his offer. Watching the colonel eat the fruit made her insides turn over and his eyebrows rose expectantly when he heard her stomach rumble.

“We can always return you to your former residence,” he taunted her in an amused tone, wiping the orange-colored juice off his face with a handkerchief embroidered with the First Order logo. As she sat on the soft armchair in the warmth of the office, the sweet fragrance of meiloorun wafting past her nostrils, she made up her mind.

“No, sir,” she conceded quietly as she swallowed her pride. “I am ready to begin the training.”

“Very good, Tallura,” he half-smiled at her, sitting down to prepare her file as he tossed the half-eaten fruit in a wastebin, much to Tana’s dismay. “I’ll have new quarters assigned to you, and your first class will begin tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred.” He had reached down and pressed the comm unit, probably calling for an escort.

“Thank you, sir,” she nodded as she rose from the chair.

“Oh, and Tallura,” the colonel noted as she turned to meet the pair of troopers entering the office, “watch yourself,” he admonished. “You’ve been given a second chance. Don’t waste it.”

She saluted the colonel wordlessly as she left, following the two stormtroopers back down the hallway to the lift as she became more worn out and fatigued. She couldn’t wait to take a shower and put on a fresh uniform, and she prayed she’d be fed sooner than later.

Arriving at her new room, she saw some items lying on the bed. There were six sets of a new style of uniform, her personal effects from her old quarters, and a small bowl of her own fruit which she attacked with fervor. Next to the bowl, Tana discovered a datapad as well which was on and blinking a new message.

She wiped her hands of the fruit juice and opened the screen to see a small note typed out in Aurebesh:

_(Lieutenant Talurra,_

_Tomorrow you will start your training in field medicine as the rest of the crew begins the final preparations to embark on what will be a mission requiring all your skills and effort. Your service with this crew is crucial to our success and I thank you for taking me up on this offer. I hope you will take this as an opportunity for a fresh start, for both of us._

_-Ren)_

Tana’s breath caught in her throat when she read the last line. He seemed so earnest, but she was coming to see him as impetuous and untrustworthy, and she didn’t want to take another chance with him. Then again, did she really know him well enough to pass judgment? He couldn’t be that unreliable or he wouldn’t have been promoted as far as he had at his relatively young age. She’d only seen him in a few circumstances and maybe there was a side of him she hadn’t observed yet. Even so, perhaps she could hide amongst the crew and avoid him while pursuing her own objectives. Besides, she had no choice now; there was no turning back. She thought about what this new role would mean for her and how her new responsibilities could fit into her overall career objectives. Maybe someday, she’d be running her own medbay or even be the Chancellor of Medicine!

The door toned and Tana opened it to find a service robot holding a dinner tray. Her eyes lit up as she found a bowl of rich stew, a round whole grain roll and a plump piece of cake on the tray, and she even thanked the small droid as it rolled away.

Tana dug into the meal like it was her last, though it felt like her first in forever. She tried to eat slowly in order to avoid getting sick, and by the time she finished, she was almost too sleepy to shower. She was also grateful for the private refresher in her room, no matter its small size. She fell asleep in her towel, her damp hair strewn across the pillow while dreams of droids juggling meilooruns floated through her head.

~~~~~~

beep Beep BEep BEEp BEEP!

An alarm emanating from the datapad attacked Tana in the middle of a particularly peculiar dream. She dragged herself regretfully from the soft bunk, her hair still a bit damp. She could have slept all day but she knew she couldn’t because today was going to be the first day of the rest of her career. She must find a way to make it a triumph.

Tana donned her new uniform, a smart black suit consisting of a long jacket and slim pants, both with red piping and the First Order logo emblazoned on the left shoulder. The jacket’s high collar was a bit snug, but the pants were a more streamlined legging versus the ostentatious jodhpur traditionally sported by First Order officers.

While she was dressing, the same service droid from the day before brought her a hearty breakfast of grainmeal porridge, jogan fruit juice and a large mug of caf which she downed before tackling the meal. Checking the datapad’s calendar, she located the training room on the ship’s map and left early, wanting a front row seat in the class, knowing that was where the top passing grades were to be found. Always competitive, Tana felt that row belonged to her, and she wasn’t going to let anyone else take it from her.

However, when she arrived she found there was only one seat in the classroom, and it was in front of a holoscreen. On the desk was a terminal and keyboard, and several lines of type were already on the screen giving her directions to begin her lessons. Tana was a bit disappointed as she was actually looking forward to a roomful of classmates not only for some much-missed social interaction but against whom she could compete, just like in primary school, secondary school and officer school – she was constantly trying to impress her parents and make them proud of her. Instead, it would be just her and the computer, but she was still looking forward to the challenge even if she was a bit intimidated by the idea of being in battle.

To date, Tana’s time in the First Order had been confined to serving on smaller transport ships until she’d been transferred to _The Supremacy_ on the last rotation, a result of her hard work, dedication and adherence to regulations, so she believed. Now, she was to be thrust into front-line medicine, and it was intimidating to say the least. However, Tana wasn’t ready to shrink from this challenge. Once committed, she would embrace it until she found success.

It wasn’t easy going – the following week found her in the classroom for twelve full hours a day with only short breaks and quick meal times, plus time at the range to sharpen her shooting skills which she hoped she wouldn’t have to employ. She did nothing but study, shoot, sleep, wash and eat – repeat. The things she learned were horrific – hemorrhages and laser burns and blast injuries and all sorts of things that could happen on the field of war, some things she hadn’t had to learn until now. Triage was something that was mostly performed before the patients got to her – now that trauma would be front and center in her work, and she wasn’t looking forward to it. Hopefully, the crew wouldn’t have to see much action and her role was purely precautionary.

Finally, her last day was a set of exams that included live-fire tests and battle re-enactments intended to evaluate her ability to think on her feet and react appropriately under pressure while meeting the mission’s objectives. She passed with good marks, but not great ones, for which she was sorely disappointed. She had hoped for a perfect score, but her decision-making skills were not the quickest and her ability to hold steady under fire was her greatest weakness.

Still, Tana passed – she would serve on The Finalizer. On the way back from her exams, she stopped by the public comm terminals in the common area near her quarters and dialed her parents’ home. After several uneventful moments, her mother answered the call.

“Tana, how are you?” her mother asked through a fake smile. A superficial response, as always. She felt she was always dealing more with her mother’s representative than her mother herself.

“I have big news, Mother,” she replied, trying to couch her words carefully so that her mom could find no flaw in Tana’s message. “I’ve been trained as a battlefield medic and promoted to serve on _The Finalizer_ under Commander Ren,” she smiled hopefully at her mother.

Her mother’s eyebrows wrinkled in consternation.

“What happened to the medbay on _The Supremacy_? I thought you were studying under Captain Parteya? Isn’t that where the Supreme Leader is? Didn’t you get a promotion in rank? Why would you want to leave _The Supremacy_?” her mother peppered her with questions.

“Well,” Tana tried obfuscating, “this is a new opportunity. If you’re not growing and learning new things, they don’t look kindly on that.”

“And what are you going to do now, run around where all that fighting is going on with all those soldiers?” her mother quizzed her, her nose wrinkling in distaste. “What kind of life is that?”

“Mother,” Tana interjected, trying to sound stern, but losing to her mother’s overbearing tirade.

“Isn’t _The Finalizer_ where General Hux is stationed?” the older woman suddenly perked up, smiling hopefully. “I hear from his mother he’s still single.”

“Is Daddy there?” Tana asked, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

“Your father,” Tana’s mother sniffed, “is no longer here. We’re getting a divorce.”

“You WHAT?” she demanded, unable to believe her ears. “You two have been married for fifty years, why are you getting divorced NOW?!” Tears started forming at the edge of Tana’s field of vision. Just behind her mother in the vidscreen, she thought she saw a younger man walking by.

“Who is that?” Tana demanded.

“That is my boyfriend, Delvan.”

“Where is Daddy?!” Tana demanded angrily, even louder this time, attracting stares from the fellow soldiers around her.

“He’s moved in with his brother,” her mother shrugged, trying to act disinterested.

“If you see him, tell him I love him,” Tana replied sadly. “We ship out tomorrow.”

Insulted that Tana hadn’t bothered to express a daughter’s love to her, Tana’s mother snipped, “Tell him yourself,” cutting off the transmission.

Tana didn’t have time to hunt down the signal key for her uncle’s living unit to try and locate her father. She had to get back to her quarters and begin packing. ‘I love you, Daddy, I’m so sorry,’ Tana thought to herself, picturing the warm, kindly older man who had taught her so much and done so much to care for her all her life. She was angry her family had split up over what Tana was sure was her mother’s selfishness and apparent infidelity. Even if she’d wanted to make her family proud, she now had no family to return to.

For Tana, it was the last straw. She was tired of trying to keep up with everything and everybody. Returning to her quarters, she sat down on the bed and bawled her eyes out as she mourned her past and experienced anxiety for her future until she chose to reframe her feelings. Maybe this assignment was just what she needed – she could move on: a new start, on a new ship, under a new commander, past be damned.


	6. Chapter 6

# Chapter 6

As their transport left the docking bay of _The Supremacy_ carrying personnel and equipment for Kylo Ren’s new posting, Tana was jostled amongst a detachment of troopers. At the head of the group she saw the shining armor of Captain Phasma.

The personnel were all standing, hanging on to overhead handrails as they flew across the short span between the two battleships. Tana had never been very fond of space travel and she reached to turn the dial up on the motion sickness suppression device tucked behind her ear. It was almost too late as she felt a wave of nausea threaten to eject the small breakfast she’d eaten that morning. She gulped down against the discomfort and tried to keep her eyes focused on _The Finalizer_ as the cruiser swelled into view.

The transport shuttle joined a dozen or so others spread out in the vast hangar as troops moved in all directions. Tana consulted her datapad to find the location of the medbay where her new assignment awaited and worked her way through the immense spacecraft, eventually arriving at the medical facility. The door was just a short distance from the command bridge and as the door slid silently open, Tana was piqued by its size. The facility was small; only a half-dozen beds were present but it contained a full complement of state-of-the-art equipment; two full-body scanners, two bacta tanks, and all the standard tools and supplies she could hope for. She was confused by the diminutive size of the medsuite, not at all the comprehensive hospital facility from which she’d just been posted, but she supposed she couldn’t expect the best assignment considering her recent misconduct and her just-above-average exam scores. The only thing missing was additional personnel, which she was hoping would be solved by the appearance of a young crewman.

“Captain?” the young man saluted her.

“Oh, no,” she replied, taken aback by his deferential greeting. “Lieutenant Talurra,” she corrected him.

He appeared confused. “I thought you were _Captain_ Talurra,” he said, consulting his datapad. He reached the screen out for her inspection; there on the datapad was instruction for him to report to _Captain Talurra_. She knew of no one else in the corps named Talurra. ‘He must have done it after all,’ she thought – ‘Kylo promoted me.’

“Well, that’s news to me,” she said, a broad grin breaking across her face. “Captain Talurra,” she saluted him in return.

“Corporal Danvers,” he smiled back and shook her hand, his warm brown eyes expressing a certain amount of admiration and nervousness. He was of average height and build with warm coloring and a kind face. She knew instantly they would be friends, and she was committed not to repeat her past mistakes of stepping over her colleagues in pursuit of her goals. This time, in this place, things would be different.

“Well, let’s get an inventory of the setup and we’ll see who else turns up, shall we?” she asked. The two officers went over the inventory logs, noting the broad array of supplies for which they would be responsible. As they were comparing notes, the medbay doors opened quietly, and Kylo Ren entered with a small entourage including Captain Phasma.

Although he was sans cape, Ren’s helmet was firmly in place and Tana’s inability to see his facial expression gave her pause; the wall was up between them again.

She and Danvers both turned and saluted, awaiting the Commander’s review. He stalked slowly around the medsuite inspecting the facility while the other officers stood ready.

“Leave us,” he turned and commanded Phasma and her troops. “You as well,” he indicated to Danvers.

“Yes, sir,” the younger officer acknowledged, scurrying away to a back office and closing the door.

“Are you finding things satisfactory?” Kylo asked Tana.

“Yes, sir,” she answered. “Thank you for the promotion, I really wasn’t expecting it.”

“That’s why it was given to you,” he replied, striding across to her and withdrawing a new insignia bar from his tunic pocket. “You are in charge now, Talurra,” he said, pinning the rank badge onto her uniform, his closeness making her tremble. “This is your medbay for which you will be responsible.”

She stiffened at the implication and she was nearly overwhelmed. She didn’t know if she was ready for this level of responsibility.

“Sir, I don’t know if I can handle all of _this_ by myself,” she stammered, sweeping her arm across the room.

“You aren’t alone, you have Danvers, and Catelle will be along shortly. She’s being reassigned from planetside,” he said, striding along the wall of beds.

“This is a very small suite for such a large ship,” she observed.

“It’s only intended to serve a very few people,” he explained, “a few bridge crew, Captain Phasma, and myself. Of course, it can serve as overflow if the situation warrants, but I wanted to be able to keep you close by.”

She shivered at the last, the idea of being under his thumb making her feel uneasy.

“How cozy,” she commented with cynicism, though nothing about this felt comfortable to her.

“It will be, in time,” he said, ignoring her sarcasm, “you will settle in here and make it your own, I’m sure,” he said more as a command than an observation.

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

Ren approached her slowly as if stalking his prey. She could only see her own eyes in his visor, not his, and what she saw showed her how very small she was, how unsure of herself she seemed, how scared.

“Don’t be frightened, Tana,” he whispered through the vocoder, his huge, gloved hands cupping her small, pale face. “You are a strong woman, I have faith in you. I… I need you,” he began to stammer, “here in this place, to take care of us.”

“Us?” she asked softly as she looked up at him, resting her small fingers on his wrists. “What about you?”

“Me?” he scoffed defensively and turned away, unwilling for her to look at him even though the helmet obscured his face. “I’m wanted on the bridge,” he said as he made for the exit. Turning as the doorway slid open, he pointed to her. “I want to see an emergency action plan from you in anticipation of the next mission assignment. Everything you need to know should be in your briefings,” he said, suddenly all business.

“Wait,” she called to him before he could leave. “What about my quarters? I don’t know where I’m billeted.”

“I’ll come show you at the end of your shift,” he said more gently, turning sharply on his heel as he left.

Alone once more, Tana retrieved Danvers from the office to assist her in developing their response plan as they awaited the arrival of the second assistant, Bria Catelle. The other officer was a pleasant young red-head, perky and friendly and full of ideas. She reminded Tana of herself when she was fresh out of med school.

She released the two younger officers at the end of the shift, eager to see them off before Ren returned and they chatted excitedly away as they departed the medbay, already developing a camaraderie. As Tana closed down the suite, its hours being dictated by the occupancy of its beds, she looked around sadly, wishing she could share her good fortune with her father.

The doors slid abruptly aside, startling her from her reverie, to reveal Kylo Ren without his helmet this time. He looked as casual as he probably would be while out of his own quarters, Tana pondered.

“How was your first day?” he asked, slowly approaching her.

“It was fine, the staff are young but they’ll be a good fit for the job,” she advised him.

“Good,” he nodded to her. “How about we get you settled in to your new quarters?”

She packed up her personal effects and followed him from the medbay to the executive lift as they made a brief descent.

“I had you moved closer to the medbay than you were on _The Supremacy_ ,” Ren noted, his hands clasped in front of him and his jaw set as he stared ahead. This was the closest they had been to each other alone since his shuttle mission to Lothal.

As they traveled down the hall of the residential wing one floor below the medbay, Tana noted the rooms here were further apart than her previous assignment. She wondered if that meant the rooms were bigger, but maybe she’d have a roommate.

Swiping his wristcomm at the door panel, Ren stepped aside to allow her first entrance. Tana stepped tentatively through the doorway, but she was pleasantly surprised to see that not only did she have a larger room, but a wider bed and her own refresher that even had a tub.

“Wow…” she commented, unable to hold back her surprise. “This is wonderful.”

“I was hoping you’d find it to your liking,” he replied.

“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Very much, thank you. You know,” she looked up at him with appreciation, “you didn’t need to do this, I’d have been just fine in the junior barracks.”

“But you’re not a junior officer anymore, Tana,” he corrected her.

“I suppose not,” she replied, looking down at the datapad she still clutched in her hands.

He nodded as he looked around. “Did you have a chance to look over the mission briefing?”

“Yes, we have a rough outline of where we’d like to go with things depending on a couple of factors,” she commented as she pulled up the notes on her datapad. “I’d like to walk you through it if you have time.”

“No,” he said quietly as he pulled the pad from her hand and placed it on her dresser. “I don’t have time for that, only this,” and with that he slid his hands into her hair and bent down to press his lush, full lips against hers, the warmth of his close proximity infecting her entire body.

She began to struggle but something made her stop. She wasn’t sure if it was her or him, but something quelled her urge to pull away. He continued the kiss, his soft tongue gently exploring the inside of her mouth. She found herself calming and enjoying it, returning his attentions, and soon he was hungrily sucking at her. Too quickly, she felt the excitement begin to mount at a rapid pace, almost crushing her with its intensity.

She finally pulled away, leaning back against the dresser and using her arms to support herself as she gasped, staring at him in awe and fear.

They both breathed heavily in the awkward silence that fell between them. Ren turned his back on her and headed for the exit.

“I’ll take a look at your notes tomorrow, Captain Talurra.”

And with that, he was gone.

‘What in Hellios just happened?’ she wondered. Why had she succumbed to him this time? She still harbored a good deal of resentment toward him for how he’d spoken to her and treated her, and she wasn’t at all sure she wanted to be touched by him, but then her body had betrayed her. She could feel a slight but insistent throbbing between her legs, and it made her feel strange. How could she be both frightened by a man and yet attracted to and excited by him at the same time? She shook her head, trying to come back to herself.

The stars only knew what tomorrow would bring, but she was going to be ready for it, she promised herself.


	7. Chapter 7

Trying to forget her interaction with Ren and wanting to calm down before bedtime, Tana decided to test out her new refresher. As she bathed herself in the generously sized tub, she gave in to the sexual urges he’d left her with and massaged herself with her fingers, slowly rubbing her tiny pink nub in the warm pool of water. As her fingers wandered over her vulva, she gently pressed against her entrance, always conscious to be careful of her hymen. She’d been a virgin this long and she didn’t want anything to ruin that. She was saving herself for a husband, someone she was hoping she would meet through the corps, someone she could build a successful life and family with, someone as ambitious as she…

Tana felt something strange; instead of the spongy membrane that was normally just inside the most tender area of her womanhood, her hymen seemed to be missing. Her blood began to run cold as she said to herself in denial, “no, no, no…” She pressed a bit further, wondering if maybe it was just the way she was sitting in the warm bath, but no – as she gently slid her middle finger further inside, she felt no resistance at all – it was _gone_.

Had she masturbated too hard and hurt herself? Had she sat down too hard on something and didn’t notice she’d ruptured it? What would she do? Where was it?!? She began to cry, seeing her dreams of her wedding night disappear. She knew many other women didn’t care, but she’d prided herself on staying chaste all these years. Her parents had protected her, drilled it into her that good girls _don’t_ , that she’d never get a decent husband if she wasn’t a virgin. As a result, she had been kept under her parents’ watchful eye from the time she was a teenager. Now, after all these years, her life’s plan for a happy family of her own seemed to be destroyed.

Tana found it difficult to sleep that night, the tumult that her life had become keeping her awake into the small hours of the morning.

~~~~~~

“Tana,” Kylo sighed as he stroked the head of his erect cock down the valley between Tana’s buttocks and around the slick opening of her tight hole. Their bodily fluids mixed together and as he pressed himself against her tight entrance, he growled in anticipation of the pleasure he was about to experience.

He slid into her with some resistance but the pressure was like a comfortable squeezing sensation, the moist, velvety feeling sending waves of pleasure through his entire body. He began thrusting into her, slowly at first, but then building momentum as he began to lose himself in the heady experience of raw, uninhibited coitus.

He bent over Tana’s back to reach under and cup her ample breasts, his thick fingers tweaking her pert nipples as his hips met her soft buttocks with each stroke. “Such sweet, sweet pussy,” he whispered in her ear as he felt his scrotum begin to tighten. He knew he was only moments from his climax and he rose back up to grasp her backside, his hands tightening on the pale, soft flesh as he began to pound into her without mercy. He looked down to watch himself penetrate her over and over, his penis glistening with moisture as it hammered away at her. Unable to hold back any longer, he arched his back and drove himself home in her one last time, the tip of his prick burying itself deep inside of her as his orgasm erupted with lightning force into her hot cavity…

Kylo felt something hard press against his belly as he rolled over in bed and the discomfort awakened him. What was going on? Where was Tana?

Untangling himself from the silky black sheets, he realized in the dim light of his quarters that he was alone – there was no Tana and he was hard as a rock. It had been a dream that he had, thankfully, not lost control of in his sleep. It had been many years since as a young adolescent he’d experienced nocturnal emissions. This time, though, he had come very, very close.

Angered by his body’s reaction to his inner desires, he went to his shower where he was able to release the pent-up urges. Massaging himself to completion, he resented the fact that he hadn’t been able to bring Qaderos and the girls with him on this mission. Still, he had Tana, and he hadn’t given up on trying to seduce her. The mission ahead of him was full of doubt and uncertainty but if there was nothing else to come of his time in the Outer Rim, he was going to take advantage of the opportunity of having Tana at his fingertips.

~~~~~~

Tana awoke her first morning in her new quarters drenched in sweat and crying – she’d had a terrible nightmare. She pushed her pillow away, its presence serving as a vestige of the frightening dream she’d just had. It reminded her of how she had been trying to fight off the unseen hands suffocating her as they held her head down while her insides were being torn apart, blood everywhere. She was still trembling, trying to extricate her consciousness from the terrifying scene. It must have been her sad discovery last night that had triggered the bad dream, she decided.

Padding softly to the refresher, she splashed cold water on her face. It helped a bit, but it was as if half of her mind was still in the dream and half of her was in her room, and she was having a tough time shaking it off. Worse, she discovered as she relieved herself, she was wet. What was happening to her?

She showered and dressed, realizing it must be close to the time she needed to leave in order to show up for her shift at the medbay. The clock on her nightstand glowed “07:43” – damn, she’d be late if she didn’t hurry. She was now grateful that Ren had considered her proximity to the medbay as it would save her precious minutes in reporting for duty.

She slid into her boots and pulled her hair up into a bun under her hat, only to run into Ren the moment she opened the door. He was clad in his full ensemble, a force to be reckoned with.

“Commander–“ she gasped, startled by his appearance.

“Captain Talurra,” he greeted her, filling the doorway of her residence without invitation and crowding her with his stature her so that she was forced to back into her quarters.

“I’ll be late for my shift in the medbay if I don’t head out now,” she objected.

“That’s quite alright,” he reassured her as he glared down at her, “Corporal Danvers is more than capable of opening an empty medbay.”

She was confused by his sudden appearance at her quarters.

“You seem upset by something this morning,” he said to her pointedly through the vocoder.

“It’s nothing, just a minor physical ailment,” she lied. He looked intently at her, and she felt as if he recognized exactly what her concern was despite there being no possible way he could have known.

“Are you not well?” he asked solicitously from behind his opaque mask.

“I’ll be alright,” she tried obfuscating as she pulled her jacket down by the hem, fussing with her uniform in an effort to diffuse her nerves.

Her fidgeting and the ripples of dishonesty he felt through The Force told Kylo she was lying. However, he didn’t see the point in forcing the truth out of her, at least not at the moment.

“Very well,” he replied, “maybe you’d have some time to take a look at those injuries you patched up last week.”

“Yes, fine,” she replied, his comment pulling her into the present. “Let’s head to the medbay and I’ll take a look at those for you.”

The two them walked in silence from her quarters to the medical suite where Danvers was indeed awaiting them.

“Corporal, good morning,” Tana greeted her young charge. “Would you be so kind as to bring me a bandage kit and a tissue mender, please?”

“Right away, Ma’am,” the medic replied. It would take time for Tana to get accustomed to being the officer in charge.

Ren removed his helmet and uniform and sat on one of the gurneys as Tana pulled the privacy curtains into place. She removed his dressings and inspected the old wounds which were now just dried scabs, no more than minor injuries, and she was relieved to see there was no infection.

“I can run the tissue mender over these and you should be able to get rid of your bandages,” she commented optimistically.

“Good,” Ren replied softly. “I’m tired of having to replace these every day, it’s been difficult without someone to help me with them.” He laid down on the gurney and looked at Tana as he made the statement, making her feel as if the ‘someone’ was her.

“Well, I’m glad we’re here for us to assist you,” she replied non-committedly.

As she cleaned up the rough edges of his sores, she felt a strange electricity between them and she looked up from her work to find his gaze focused on her.

“Please don’t stare at me,” Tana whispered.

“Why?” he asked. “Are you not accustomed to being looked at by your patients?”

“Not like this,” she replied quietly, not wanting the other medics to overhear.

“Like what?” he teased her menacingly.

She began to feel her cheeks become warm and she was sure she was blushing. She couldn’t believe she was having this conversation with Kylo Ren of the First Order. “Like you’re trying to distract me from my work,” she answered tersely.

Taking her hand, he said, “I would never want to do that. I know how important your work is to you, how much effort you put into taking care of me. I know you’d do anything to relieve my discomfort.”

She looked down to watch him massaging her palm, and she could also see he was aroused. He gently guided her hand to his erection.

“This has been bothering me lately,” he said quietly, his eyes locked with hers.

She could feel the strength in his hand, the pulsation of his massive cock as it filled with blood and threatened to escape his underwear. She let out a tiny gasp, wanting to pull away yet drawn to him all the same.

Placing his large hand over her own, he guided her fingers up and down the length of him over the fabric, closing his eyes and letting out a ragged sigh.

“Sir,” she began to stammer, but he ignored her. “ _Kylo_ ,” she said more insistently, gently trying to pull her hand from his.

Kylo slowly opened his eyes and lifted her fingertips to his mouth which he kissed tenderly. He could sense her distress and decided to relent for the moment. She clearly couldn’t handle his attentions this morning, whatever was bothering her, so he stared at the ceiling and let her finish undisturbed.

“Thank you, Captain,” he said appreciatively as she completed the treatment, inspecting the scars before he pulled his pants up over his thick erection, adjusting himself uncomfortably. He zipped up his jacket and donned his helmet, ready to leave her in peace.

Tana silently cleaned and packed up the equipment as Kylo looked down at her one last time. The two stared at each other in their space behind the curtain, the awkward silence deafening until they heard Danvers and Catelle chatting with each other.

“I ought to be getting my team organized,” Tana said as she pulled the curtain back.

Kylo merely nodded and turned his back on her as he departed the medbay, leaving Tana to sort out her unresolved feelings.

~~~~~~

“I sense you are distracted by something, my young apprentice,” Snoke accused Kylo Ren through the wavering transmission.

“I am only focused on our mission, Supreme Leader,” Kylo answered his master as he knelt in submission.

“Good,” Snoke replied, “because you will need all of your strength and abilities for the tasks ahead.”

“I understand,” Kylo replied.

“Now go, and let nothing stand in your way of our plans,” Snoke admonished him as the transmission ended, leaving Kylo alone in his dark ready room to contemplate his next steps. Kylo had received the final details needed to begin his search for the holocrons in earnest. Snoke had provided him specific details on place and purpose, and the young man was finally ready to start implementing both of their agendas.


	8. Chapter 8

Kylo Ren was ready to find his next holocron, and The Force seemed ready to give it to him. Snoke had provided him the coordinates of the planet, but it was his own Force senses that had led him to the five-sided box that glowed an eerie green and called to him with its promise of power.

Ren returned with it to The Finalizer and brought it to his ready room where he had stored the first holocron. As he joined the two together, he experienced visions that spoke to him of his past, his present and his future. But it was telling him something else, as well. It was showing him visions of a dagger and a planet called Mortis where a family of Force Gods was ready to welcome him home.

Ren realized this was his next move but he had to locate the planet without tipping off Snoke to his plans. For now, Snoke was only interested in the intrinsic power of the holocrons, for the raw power they contained and which could be used to power any number of dark side objects. Kylo was willing to let Snoke have his way while he bided his time pursuing his own goals, and with Snoke half a galaxy away in the Mid-Rim, Kylo was out of his daily supervision.

The day finally came when he was ready for his own objectives to be met, and he would be taking only a select few people with him on the mission. He called together a dozen troopers, the Knights of Ren, two demolition specialists, a team of excavation experts, a navigator, and Tana as field medic.

He briefed them on the location and purpose of the mission, and assigned teams for the following day. They would be split in two teams, with the Knights taking half the demolition and excavation members and Ren taking the other half, as well as the navigator and Tana.

As she packed up the night before she was to leave with Ren, she gave Danvers and Catelle their orders to cover for her during her absence. She reassured them of her safety but made sure they had contingency plans should she not return.

“And don’t forget to stock fresh bandages at every opportunity, I can’t stress that enough. We always seem to run low!”

“It’s okay, Captain,” Catelle pacified her, “we’ll be fine.”

“And if Hux comes by, just placate him. He’s neurotic about his health, but if you give him a nutrient injection, he’ll go on his merry way.”

The two young medics looked at each other and snickered, and the three of them smiled at each other.

“Thank you for holding down the fort while I’m gone,” Tana expressed her gratitude to them and left the medbay in their capable hands.

~~~~~~

Kylo led the expedition back to the plains of Lothal where he had tracked down the location of the former Jedi temple by deeply researching some of the most obscure segments of the archives of the old Empire. Just after the clone wars, the Emperor had sent an excavation team to locate it. Now Kylo was going to come finish what the Emperor had started – to tap into the power of the Force at its very heart.

By the time they came within close proximity of the temple, it was approaching night, leaving them little time to set up their field site. Tana found herself camping in the medtent which was just fine with her. It was roomy and gave her instant access to the equipment she’d need should an emergency arise; a scanner, a portable bacta tank, various healing tools and a couple of cots. The navigator’s tent was next to hers, full of equipment as well. At the center of the small base was Kylo’s tent – rather meager in comparison to the others, but it was for him and him alone. He required solitude for meditation, aside from just simply not enjoying the company of others.

One person he didn’t mind being with was Tana. He stopped by to see how she was doing, lifting the flap of the medtent to peek in on her.

“Captain Talurra,” Ren called to her from the entrance, his cloak slung over his shoulders and his helmet tucked under his arm.

“Commander,” she answered him, “Come in. Are you alright?”

“Yes, just checking to see how you’re settling in,” he replied as he wandered the perimeter of the tent and his eyes roamed over the layout. “Have you everything you need?” he asked solicitously.

“Yes; it’s not perfect but hopefully it will get the job done,” she smiled at him. “Let’s just hope we don’t have to find out.”

Ren heaved a sigh and set his helmet down on one of the storage crates. “Yes, let’s,” he said grimly.

Troubled by his response, Tana asked, “Is there something you know that you haven’t told me?”

At first, he thought of the dangers he was anticipating in digging up the old Jedi temple, but her question made him remember the night he’d hurt her and then suppressed her memory.

“What I know you’re better off _not_ knowing,” he replied solemnly, the weight on his shoulders almost visibly perceptible. “We should be safe enough,” waving his arm around the tent, he tried reassuring her. “This is all precautionary.”

“I see,” she responded quietly.

“There’s one thing I do want to take a chance on, though,” he said as he approached her, his eyes levelled on her intently.

Tana backed away from him, her heart fluttering. She found herself against one of the cots, staring up at Kylo, her head coming just up to his chin. His arms surrounded her, holding her gently but something was bothering her. Thoughts of her interactions with this man made her think of her future, of what kind of man she wanted to be with. Was Kylo the type of man she wanted in her life? And would he want _her_ in _his_ life? It’s one thing to be sex partners, it’s quite another to make the kind of life commitment that Tana was holding out for. But then she remembered her circumstances – how her virginity was now lost, limiting her options.

And then, a spark formed in the back of her mind.

Ren was next to her, and she could smell him, his warm musk invading her senses.

She felt like she was suffocating.

Her head began to spin.

“Tana,” he said, shaking her as her eyes began to roll back.

“Tana!” he hollered at her.

She began to shake and push him away, and Ren could sense what she was experiencing – she was _remembering_.

“No,” she cried at him, “get away from me!”

“Tana,” he whispered harshly at her, trying to calm her, “stop, you’re okay.”

“No, I’m not!” she screamed, struggling to escape his embrace. “I know what you did to me!” Tears were now rolling down her face. "You raped me! You monster!"

"Shhhh!" he admonished her, "everybody can hear you through these walls."

"Good," she cried, "they all need to know how much you hurt me!"

"I'm sorry, Tana," he apologized, trying to calm her. "I didn't mean to, it was a mistake."

"How do you mistakenly rape someone?" she berated him.

He grimaced, trying to keep her from becoming hysterical but failing miserably, and he continued holding her as she thrashed in his embrace, scratching his face in the process. Eventually, she wore herself out and collapsed against him, and he laid her down on the cot behind her.

‘Great,’ he thought to himself, ‘who takes care of the medic when she needs a medic?’

He took off his cloak and spread it over her as she continued sniffling and trying to catch her breath. He knelt next to her, sorry to see her so devastated.

“Tana, you’ll be okay, I promise,” he tried consoling her.

“No!” she cried. “You don’t know what this is going to do to my life!” she bawled, turning her back on him.

“What?” he asked, genuinely concerned.

“I’ll never marry a decent man!” she cried. "Who would want me now?"

“What?” he asked incredulously.

“My parents always told me,” she choked out through her tears, “I’ll never get a decent husband if I’m ruined!”

“Ruined? What are you talking about?” he asked, genuinely confused.

“I’m not a virgin anymore!” she yelled at him, exasperated.

He was amused by her archaic belief and had to stop himself from chuckling. “Tana, that’s not true,” he said softly. “That idea is gone, people don’t care about that anymore.”

“You’re lying,” she whined softly at him.

“Tana, I think your parents were just trying to protect you and keep you out of trouble,” he said. “They wanted to keep you from being taken advantage of by some lowlife.”

“You mean, a lowlife like you?” she spat accusingly.

“Yes,” he said sadly, stung by her accusation. Rising from her bedside and stepping back from her, he answered, “A lowlife like me.” And he turned and walked out of the tent, leaving Tana to cry herself to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Tana woke the next morning with a scratchy throat and itchy eyes from the meltdown she’d had the night before. Ironically, she found she was wrapped up in Ren’s cloak. She didn’t understand how he could be so cruel to her on the one hand and so gentle on the other. Was he telling the truth, was it really a mistake? And did she care?

She rose from the cot and readied herself for the day – today was going to be their first day of excavation, and she wanted to be prepared for any injuries that might result from the work ahead.

Breakfast was served in the common area, the crew taking turns being “cook”, and tomorrow would be Tana’s turn. She left Kylo’s cloak outside his tent and then sat down to eat her breakfast quietly, letting the men chat amongst themselves about drill bits and weapons, sabacc tourneys and the like. She busied herself with a field manual on triage, trying to brush up on some elements she’d had difficulty with on the exams.

She didn’t see Ren, though. He never appeared for breakfast, and he must have slipped out with the crew when they headed out to the dig site. Neither did she see him at dinner that evening, and things remained uneventful the entire day, the team making only minor headway, so they said. They believed they’d located the exact locale based on coordinates in some ambiguous records and found a plaque in the dirt that resembled a symbol Ren had found in the archives.

The next morning, Tana rose early to prepare breakfast for the crew. The navigator informed her she’d need to deliver Ren’s meal to him personally – just like he had himself the day before.

“Did he even come out at all yesterday?” she asked the sandy-haired crewman. 

“Yeah, he led the team, just he like usually does. Otherwise, he’s kept to himself.” 

When she’d fed the rest of the crew, Tana took a heaping plate of food to Kylo’s tent flap and cleared her throat, unsure how else to get his attention since she couldn’t knock.

“Come,” he said from inside, his voice low.

Tana slipped through the entrance, anticipating a lavish setup. Instead, there were simply a few crates, a charging station, a folding chair and a cot.

“You can set it on the box and go,” he said softly as he as he began dressing, pulling on his pants.

“Are you feeling alright?” she asked tentatively.

“I’m fine, for a lowlife,” he responded bitterly as he pulled his jacket over his well-muscled arms, refusing to look her in the eyes.

“Commander,” she admonished him, tilting her head to the side and squinting at him.

“What?” he demanded of her. “You come to my room, I’m expecting a girl to have sex with, and you appear!” he shouted. “We were set up, Tana! Hux made sure the girl I was expecting would never make it, and you would come in her place!”

“That’s not true!” she shouted, slamming his tray down on the crate. “I’ve known Hux since I was little, he’d never do anything like that!”

Kylo shook his head, sitting down to slip on his boots. “You’re a fool,” he muttered. “You may think you knew him but that was a long time ago, before he became an officer in the First Order. He’s an under-handed, manipulative sneak and there’s nothing but animosity between us.”

Tana may not have known Armitage well and she may not have been a fan of his, but her family and the Hux’s had been friends since before the fall of the Empire.

“You can’t talk that way about him in front of me,” she snarled as she walked away, leaving Kylo to stew in his tent.

For several days, the crew conducted excavation operations at the dig site and Tana was able to keep up with the minor quantity of bumps, bruises and injuries one normally sees on a mission of this type. Finally, they had cleared away a path to a span of rock face several meters long and just as high. There on the face was a portrait of three people in jewel-toned paints surrounded by gold circles as loth-wolves knelt at their feet.

Ren was in awe, and a hush fell over the crew.

“It’s the Father, Son and Daughter,” he whispered almost to himself.

Ren approached the mural, and recalling the journals from the original excavation project, he stepped up to the figure of the Son and pressed his fist against the mural.

Suddenly, the dozen or so concentric rings of the ethereal gateway began to spin in opposite relation to one another as the painting came alive. On the shoulder of the Daughter sat an owl-like creature softly hooting as the Daughter turned to look at the Father. The owl took flight as the hand of the Daughter pointed to the hand of the Father, who in turn pointed to the hand of the Son, whose hand opened to reveal a holocron.

Before Kylo could take it though, the loth-wolves also came to life, leaping from the painting and taking shape in the tactile world to attack Ren and his crew.

The Knights and Ren fought heroically, cutting down one after another of the creatures, but the largest of the pack was one Kylo recognized – the one whom he’d fought outside the cavern so many months ago. Ren could see the wound in his belly that Kylo had put there defending himself from the beast. ‘How had he lived?’ Kylo wondered? As he was distracted by the fact that this animal shouldn’t even be here, the beast leapt forward and slashed him across the abdomen in kind with his very sharp claws.

Ren’s saber met the wolf square in the temple this time, and it crumped to the ground with a whimper. It was then that Kylo felt shock, then pain, then burning, then desperation. He looked down to find he was holding his guts in his hands. He dropped his lightsaber and keeping his objective in the front of his mind, stumbled through the rubble to obtain the holocron from the Son before it disappeared.

Leaning forward amongst the rubble, Kylo’s hand reached out for the sacred object, but at the very moment his hand touched it, the circles in the mural glowed white hot with electricity and he was shocked by bolts of lightning that blew him back several meters as the crew looked on in horror. His head struck a boulder when he landed, and as the crew surrounded him to give him aid, they feared the worst.

“Get that medic down here, now!” one of Ren’s guard called.

From the camp, Tana could hear a disturbance down at the job site but knew it was something serious when her comm toned an emergency. Not knowing who it was she needed to attend, Tana rushed to the site, hoping it was just a sprained ankle or minor cut. No such fortune awaited her, though.

Tana scrambled down a slope to find Kylo lying prone, his intestines exposed and he was seared head to toe with electrical burns. When she arrived at Ren’s side, she was certain he was dead, so ashen was he, but her triage training kicked in and she took charge.

“Help me get him back to the medtent!” she demanded of the crew.

The Knights of Ren gently but quickly picked up their leader and placed him on a gurney, and he was whisked by speeder back to the camp.

Tana worked to stabilize Kylo, prying a small box from his grip which the knight Trudgen took from her hand and stripping him naked before having the Knights help her lift him into the body scanner. The pictures told a grim story, and the monitors showed her readouts of his life signs that left her believing she could lose him any moment.

She couldn’t believe the number of wounds he’d suffered and she worked for hours treating him, trying to juggle one injury over another. What was more important – his abdomen or his head? His head or the electrical burns? The stench of blood, burned skin and bile was overwhelming and she gagged several times, trying not to vomit in the midst of the activity.

She put a stent behind his ear to relieve the pressure in his skull and then flushed his abdomen with bacta before suturing him closed. She’d let the bacta work its wonders on him for the burns, having the Knights help her once more lift him, this time into the tank she’d prayed she wouldn’t have to use. But she couldn’t rely on it alone. Kylo was going to need luck.

She approached the Knights, her expression grim.

“We have to take him back to _The Finalizer,_ ” she advised them. “If we keep him out here, his chances are nowhere near as good as back on the ship. I have better equipment, more staff –“

“No,” Ushar said. “He stays here.”

“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you,” she said adamantly.

“You don’t care about him, girl,” Ap'lek said menacingly. “You’d just as soon see him dead, anyway. Mind you take care, or we’ll have your head.”

She was shocked by his statement and his threat. “I’m a medical technician,” she said, “I swore an oath to care for my patients, no matter who they are!”

“Then go take care of him,” he said, turning his back on her. “He stays here.”

It was two days before Kylo’s condition was stabilized, and Tana found herself sleeping on a cot next to the bacta tank. She wasn’t ready to take him out just yet, so she let him float in there as she watched his wounds healing. The stent was doing its job as the swelling went down and his brain activity began to normalize. She noticed he’d even started dreaming, the brainwaves reflecting a normal sleep pattern.

Despite their mistrust of each other, The Knights had become a god-send to her, taking turns watching over Kylo so that she could get some sleep. Things had gone so wrong on this journey and she couldn’t wait to return to _The Finalizer_ and get back to her routine.

After the third day, she felt he’d had all the healing he could benefit from in the bacta tank, so she had the Knights help her lift him out and onto a cot where she toweled the goopy liquid off of him along with some of the dead tissue from the burns. We was so tall and muscular, he was incredibly heavy, and it took three of them to maneuver him as they helped Tana put him in his sleep clothes and get him settled in.

Tana pulled the other cot alongside Kylo’s at bedtime that night and watched him as he breathed, shallow and weakly, but he breathed all the same. His life-signs weren’t strong, and he still wasn’t in the clear. She reached over and adjusted his intravenous line as she fell deep asleep…

~~~~~~

“Ta-na…,” she heard softly, as if from another room. “Tana…” Ren’s voice was muffled, but she was baffled – he couldn’t have called to her; he was on a ventilator, a machine breathing for him. She must have imagined it. Wiping the sleep from her eyes, she went to the supply cabinet to get the liquid to change his intravenous line.

“Tana,” the voice called again, but she realized she was feeling it more than hearing it.

She turned to look at Ren, and he was very still, but as she approached him, she saw a tear fall down the side of his face. He was calling her, and she didn’t know how.

Tana rested her hand on his shoulder, one of the few places on him that wasn’t torn up. She saw his eyes move under his lids and he began to squirm, his head turning side to side. She tried to calm him since she was afraid he was starting to waken and he’d tear at the ventilator. She didn’t think he was ready to have it out, so she sedated him. As he began to calm, she heard her name echo in her mind one last time…


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning found the navigator, Sen, poking his head in the medtent where Tana was keeping her solemn vigil, bringing the young medic caf and breakfast.

“How’s he doing?” Sen asked, looking over toward Kylo in curiosity as he handed Tana the tray.

“He’s better than he was, but he’s still not in the clear,” she said sadly.

Observing the dark circles under her eyes, Sen commented, “You don’t look so hot, either, Doc.”

She laughed. “I’m only a medic, but I’ll be alright.”

“Well,” Sen said as he turned to leave, “you done right by ‘im, that’s a certain.”

She prayed he was right.

Today was the day she needed to determine if he was well enough to come off the ventilator. Every day he was on it, his body became more and more dependent on it and worked less for itself. If he was on the machine too long, it could actually extend his recovery time instead of shortening it, but once she took it out, it would be even harder to put him back on it. It was a delicate trade-off.

As she sat checking the monitor readouts against the medical manuals after eating a trifle amount of food, she decided it was time. She planned to give him another round of injections before she did so, including a narcotic. While she was re-filling the hypospray with an antiobiotic serum, she felt something brush her arm. Kylo had raised his hand to reach out to her, resting his fingers on her elbow. The sedative was beginning to work and he was struggling against the weird feeling.

“Don’t fight it,” she said to him softly. “It’s to keep you calm while I take out the ventilator.”

His eyelids separated just a tiny bit and she could see him staring directly at her. He blinked a couple of times and then the anaesthetizing power of the drug took over and put him back in a dream world as his hand slipped down and fell off the side of the cot.

~~~~~~

Tana had been hovering over the monitors nervously since she’d removed Ren from the ventilator several hours ago. He was touch and go, sometimes his breathing strong and even, sometimes shallow, sometimes it stopped altogether. That’s when she would rub his chest to stimulate him and his breathing would pick back up. Watching this arduous situation was making her a nervous wreck.

At one point, Trudgen came to see Kylo, bearing the lost lightsaber. He stood watching his leader nervously before lifting the wounded man’s hand and putting the saber in Kylo’s palm, closing his fingers around it. Neither of them spoke and Trudgen stalked away, his head lowered.

Tana could see the Knights were almost lost without Kylo. He was the tower of strength they all looked to and he had been laid low in battle. It must have made them all feel their mortality, as the rock upon which they rested for their power had been crumbled from underneath of them.

In many ways it had. Kylo was at the pinnacle of his youth, his body was, or had been, in near perfection condition and his decisive leadership led them through many a difficult trial. Now, he was wasting away without nutritious food or exercise, much the way Tana had the two weeks she had been in the detention cell. She wouldn’t wish that on anyone, even Kylo. He was being fed through a tube and it would be weeks before he’d be able to eat anything by mouth.

And she didn’t want to see his body wither and weaken. In the time she’d been caring for him, she’d seen and touched him all over and his physique was exquisite. She’d bathed him and cleaned his wounds, going over every inch of him and she’d come to appreciate the outlines of his muscles, his supple skin, his fine features. She even liked the way he smelled. What she especially liked about him right now was that he was quiet and he couldn’t touch her.

As the hours ticked by, Kylo’s condition improved little by little until she was finally able to justify taking a nap.

~~~~~~

Kylo slowly began to awaken. He licked his lips, dry and cracked from the ventilator, and his eyes flickered open as he came to. He stared at the ceiling, trying to remember where he was and how he’d gotten here. This wasn’t his bedroom, and he was outside… kind of… wait, no, the outside was _outside_. He was inside, but he could hear the outside, the wind rustling against fabric. Fabric? Why were the walls made of fabric? Fabric walls… a tent. Why was he in a tent?

He began to look around, his gaze falling on Tana, fast asleep next to him. They were sleeping together? But she was mad at him. And they weren’t really sleeping together so much as next to each other. What was going on? He tried to sit up, but agony ripped through his belly and he cried out in pain.

Tana shot awake. “What? What??” she asked, confused.

Kylo was moaning next to her, tears forming at the corners of his eyes.

“Okay, okay,” she tried calming him as she scrambled from her cot. “You’re fine, you’ve had surgery, you need to lay still.”

“Thirsty,” he croaked out in a whisper, his throat dry and parched.

Tana brought him a cup of water and lifted his head up while she held it to his lips, only letting him take small swallows.

“Slow down,” she warned him, “sip it, your gut was injured and it’s not ready for anything yet.”

He pulled away, grimacing as the cold liquid started to seep into his stomach.

“What’s going on?” he rasped, unable to talk much above a whisper.

“You had an accident at the dig site,” she answered him as she traded the cup for her medscanner. “You have injuries to your head and abdomen, and you were electrocuted. You nearly died.”

Kylo began to travel back through his memories and he recalled the day they’d found the mural, and the holocron appeared, and then the wolves…

“Oh, no,” he sighed.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, concerned.

“The holocron,” he muttered.

“With Trudgen. Maybe he’d trade you a lightsaber for it,” she smiled at him, running the scanner over his midsection, happy he was finally conscious.

Kylo lifted his right hand to find his lightsaber clasped between his fingers, and his face visibly relaxed.

“Where are they?”

“The Knights?” she asked.

He nodded weakly.

“Waiting for your lazy self to get up and get back to work,” she teased him.

He rolled his eyes at her and groaned as he tried to sit up and get more comfortable.

“Ugh,” he complained, “I hurt everywhere.”

“And it will hurt even more if you get up,” she said, pushing him gently back down on the cot. Tana checked him over and took out his intravenous line, pointing out to him it was the second time she’d had to give him one.

“Better get used to it,” he replied.

“You knew something like this could happen, didn’t you?” she asked, his insistence on her accompanying and his earlier comments to her all coming together.

“I thought it might be prudent to be prepared,” he said.

“I wish you’d told me,” she said as she looked down at his scanner readouts.

“I wish you’d told me you were there for my physical,” he replied.

“Oh, not this again!” she shouted at him, then realizing she shouldn’t get him wound up, she bit her lip. “Look,” she said, “let’s agree it was a mistake, and we’ll leave it in the past, shall we?”

He seemed relieved by her suggestion and nodded. There was a détente between them, and it was more than he could hope for.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, gazing up at her from the cot. “I know you saved my life.”

“It wasn’t just me, it was everyone,” she said modestly. “The Knights sat by your bedside many evenings. They helped me move you and get you settled in, relieved me so I could get some rest. I don’t know what I’d have done without them.”

“Me either,” he said wistfully. “You stayed with me the whole time?” he asked in amazement.

“Where else would I have gone?” she asked incredulously. It made her wonder who he’d have had at his bedside had he had a choice. It always amazed Tana who showed up to see patients.

Kylo suddenly remembered a time in his childhood he’d fallen and broken his leg and was unable to walk for a couple of weeks. His father had been away on whatever adventure he was on and his mother had been occupied with diplomatic business. It was Threepio who had stayed with him, for all that was worth.

“Nowhere, I suppose,” he replied to her question as he lay back and fell asleep, tired out from the small amount of activity but grateful to have someone by his side who was willing to stay, if only for a little while.


	11. Chapter 11

It was early evening a few days later when Tana awoke to find Ren vomiting over the side of his cot. She was disappointed to find his stomach contents held more than the broth she’d been feeding him – there were signs of solid food, something he’d managed to sneak into his diet despite her warnings to him.

“I told you that you weren’t ready, Commander,” she chided him, bringing a wet cloth to clean his face while a servodroid scrubbed the floor next to her. He was sweaty and pale.

“I know,” he huffed, “it was just bread for frag’s sake, I’m so hungry.”

It tore at her watching his physique becoming leaner as the days dragged by. He still didn’t want to return to _The Finalizer_ for whatever reason, so he was stuck on Lothal, his healing period taking longer than it should have. In the meantime, his intestines weren’t yet prepared to digest anything more than liquid and Tana didn’t have access to the normal nutritional supplements she would have back on the Star Destroyer where the medbay was.

“Let me see what I can do,” she said, “but for tonight just sleep.”

Ren was so tired and weak he didn’t even argue with her, dropping off into a deep slumber.

~~~~~~

The next morning, she brought a pan of water, towels, washcloth and soap as he awakened.

“Up, up!” she said cheerily as she saw his open eyes looking at her. “You’re getting a bath today.”

“At least let me relieve myself first,” he complained as he leaned over the side of the bed using the container she’d provided him. At least this he was able to do mostly on his own. Everything else, he’d had to rely upon Tana for. As the wounds of his body lessened, the wounds to his masculine pride were mounting. He was fiercely independent, he had been since his parents had abandoned him to his uncle’s ‘care’ at the Jedi temple. He had essentially done everything for himself from the time he was ten. He didn’t need Tana to coddle him like this, injured or no, especially with there still being a level of distrust between the two of them. As much as he appreciated her caring for him, having her see him naked under these circumstances was uncomfortable to say the least.

“Ready?” she asked, holding a set of towels to lay under him as she washed him. “I know you’re still feeling badly, but I wanted to get you cleaned up before you eat your breakfast.”

“You’re not going to feed me anything anyway,” he griped. He sat up tentatively, letting her help him get undressed and then lying back on the cot where she could reach all of him easier.

“I have a surprise for you,” she teased him, “It’s not the best, but I’m giving you something more substantial this morning!”

“Oh, a feast,” he replied with sarcasm as he flinched against the wet washcloth.

Tana tried to bathe him as gently as she could but she was trying to finish quickly, before the water cooled too much. As she came to his private area, she hesitated. She’d been cleaning him in this spot for this long, should she just go ahead and continue? Or should she let him do it for himself?

Ren could see she was uncertain so he made the decision for her as he took her hand in his and moved them both over his groin.

She balked at first, but gave in. He was semi-erect, which she knew on some level he couldn’t help, but then he reached down and pulled the cloth from her fingers so that the soapy water was all that was between her hand and his manhood. He was now raging hard and she looked at him in surprise as she felt the size of it and truly saw it in all its glory for the first time.

His eyes closed in rapture as they continued stroking him together, until voices outside the tent made Tana jump and she quickly covered him with a towel.

“I’ll let you finish cleaning up while I go fetch your breakfast,” she said breathlessly as she escaped the medtent. When she returned, she saw Ren was dressed and sitting up in bed and his color even looked a little better.

“Here it is,” she said, setting a tray on his lap. On it was exactly what she promised: a bowl of broth with a piece of bread soaking in it. “Let’s see if you can get this down and hold it down.”

Angered that she’d taunted him with the possibility of a decent meal, Ren flipped the tray across the room with The Force, sending Tana running for cover. “I want food, and I want it NOW, Talurra!” he hollered at her. He was gasping from the exertion, catching his breath while Tana cowered behind the bacta tank.

She rushed from the tent as she tried choking down sobs to find Ap’lek digging into the breakfast spread. “Please take this to the Commander,” she said, dishing up and handing the large knight a tray of food. “He thinks he’s ready to eat, let’s find out.” She then served herself after Ap’lek walked away, grateful to have an excuse to sit down and relax and focus on herself, if only for a moment – no Ren to feed, or bathe, or bandage, or watch over. If he was going to be obstinate, she was going to let him. She was worn out.

~~~~~~

“So, irritated her, did you?” Ap’lek asked as he handed Ren the heavily-laden breakfast tray full of meat, fruit and grains and sat down next to his companion. Ren’s eyes went wide and his mouth began to water. He grabbed the fork and began shoveling it between his lips.

“No less than she deserved, tormenting the way she has by starving me,” he mumbled between bites.

“You don’t get like this over food,” Ap’lek observed. “She’s gotten under your skin.”

“Like an infection. And it’s time I treated it to get rid of it,” he observed, still munching hungrily away.

“And how do you plan to do that?” Ap’lek asked.

“I’m shipping her back home on a transport,” Ren replied between bites, “I can’t have her around anymore. She can’t come with us to the next locale.”

Ap’lek stood and glared down at the dark knight, almost a shadow of his former self.

“You might want to rethink that, my lad,” the older man advised. “I wasn’t all that fond of her at first, but that girl out there cares more about you than you realize. She gave of herself to you for everything she’s worth these last couple of weeks, and your ungrateful ass is being arrogant and selfish.”

Ren dropped the fork on the tray, surprised to hear Ap’lek talk to him like this. None of the Knights had ever shared much about themselves over the years. Kylo knew very little about his comrades, so having Ap’lek poke his head into his business felt strange.

“In fact,” Ap’lek added as he headed for the tent flap, “I think you owe her an apology.”

As the Knight turned to leave, Kylo doubled over in pain, the solid food tearing up his intestines just as Tana had threatened it would. He tried not to throw up, fighting to keep it down, but his body was having none of it and the sharp twisting pain in his midsection tore a scream of pain from him.

Outside the tent, everyone rose, startled by the outburst. Tana set her plate aside to rush to his side, but Ap’lek’s strong hand on her arm stopped her in her tracks.

“Let me go, I need to tend him!” she pleaded.

“Give him just a minute,” Ap’lek advised her, “make him earn it.” He winked at her.

It was torture for Tana to hear Kylo howling in pain between the waves of nausea that racked him as his insides rejected the foreign bodies it wasn’t prepared to handle. It was in that moment it became clear to her that she’d lost her objectivity as a medic. She _cared_ for Ren.

When the vomiting stopped, Ap’lek released her arm and nodded to her, allowing her to head back into the medtent.

She found the tray half-eaten, and that undigested all over the floor. The smell was making her sick now, and she was grateful for the servobot that came behind and did its job. She moved the food away from both of them, the aroma more than either of them could handle at the moment.

Handing Ren a wet cloth as he tried slowing his breathing, she picked up her medscanner to check on him. She lifted his shirt while he wiped his face which was now tinged with green, running the scanner over his sutures to make sure nothing on the surface or deeper down had torn.

“Good breakfast?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm. He snarled at her but then tempered his response. Undeterred, she admonished him. "You're lucky you didn't tear anything open."

“I’m sorry, Tana,” he said between breaths. “I know you’ve put in a lot of work trying to get me back on my feet.”

“Damn right I have,” she said, exhaustion tinging her voice. “Look, if you’re quite finished with me, I think it's time you sent me back to _The Finalizer_.” She was leaving him.

“We still need you, you’re not relieved of duty,” he replied, trying to sound officious with her.

She couldn’t believe he was making her stay like this, but all the same, she knew she would do nothing but worry over him the whole time she waited for him to return. “Fine,” she replied angrily, “but only under these conditions.”

“What conditions?” he asked incredulously, not used to dealing with ultimatums.

“You eat what I tell you, when I tell you, and you follow my medical advice. Understood?”

He nodded, unwilling to give her more than that. He’d made a concession with a woman almost half his size. He must care about her more than he was willing to admit, and he didn’t appreciate Ap’lek pointing it out to him.

It was going to be a long trip to the Outer Rim.


	12. Chapter 12

# Chapter 12

“Get off!” Ren railed at Tana for the third time today. She could tell he was getting well when he started fighting her more often than cooperating with her lately. Today’s battleground was her trying to drain his abdominal wound.

“Commander, please,” she pleaded with him where he lay on the medtent’s cot, “let me just drain this now and I’ll let you go back to what you were doing, it will only take a couple of minutes.”

“Be quick about it,” he huffed as he threw his datapad at his feet. He was sitting up in bed reading intelligence reports about their next locale and here she was getting in the way of his very important work.

“This is time sensitive,” she reminded him. “We’re trying to stay one step ahead of infection.” She flushed his abdominal cavity with bacta and he winced at the strange sensation.

“I tried to get it as near to your body temperature as I could,” she explained in apology.

“Yes, fine,” he said between gritted teeth. She’d offered to put him under for the procedure, but he was having none of it.

She suctioned the bacta back out of him and closed the port she’d sutured into his gut, then handed him back his datapad. “All done,” she announced as if he should be relieved. Instead, he grabbed the device from her hand and glared at her as if she owed him a favor. The days and nights spent in close proximity under stressful conditions were beginning to wear on them both, and they found themselves sniping at each other more often than not. She decided it was time.

“Commander, actually, instead of reading that here, maybe you can read it in your own tent.”

He looked at her quizzically.

“I think you’re well enough to be on your own now. If you want, I can help you pack up,” she said, indicating the small office he’d built around himself during his convalescence.

“Oh,” he said at first in surprise, feeling like she was kicking him out but then thought better of it. “Well, it’s about time.”

~~~~~~

Ren spent another week recovering in his own pavilion, finally being allowed more solid food as each day passed. 

Despite being afforded a better night’s sleep without her ‘roommate’, Tana discovered she missed him at nights, his soft breathing assuring her he was still alive. She berated herself for not harboring a persistent hate for her rapist, and she couldn’t resign herself to make peace between her logic and her feelings.

He didn’t act like a rapist; he didn’t take every opportunity to objectify her, to touch her, to make her feel under his control. He did none of that. Was he oversexed? Maybe. She thought she’d caught him masturbating a couple of times the last week he’d been under her care and the fact that he took advantage of Qaderos’ services on _The Finalizer_ told her that maybe he was just a young man with a healthy sex drive and a narcissistic personality, and Tana could absolutely see some of Qaderos’ girls throwing themselves at Ren.

And that’s what bothered her. He treated women like snacks, ordering them up like meals and having them brought to his quarters for him to devour. It wasn’t right; it wasn’t fair. She’d have never been put in that position to begin with if he just hadn’t put in an order for a sexual encounter that day.

She marched to his tent and called out to him. “Commander?”

He pulled the flap back to allow her entrance.

“Talurra, come in,” he replied and returned to his makeshift desk.

She had her medkit with her, so he assumed she wanted to do a check-up on him.

“How many of them have you had?” Tana blurted out.

“Injuries like this?” Ren asked, confused by her question.

“No,” Tana said, crossing her arms in front of her. “Girls. The girls on _The Finalizer_. How many of those girls have you had in your…” she trailed off and then gulped. “Your bed.”

Ren’s face grew grim. “That is my sex life, and it’s private. If you don’t want to be a part of it, you have no right asking about it.”

“How many, Ren?” she asked him again, determined to get an answer.

“Get out,” he ordered her quietly as he stood and marched over to her.

“How many??” she was screaming at him now, and he looked down at her as he took her neck in his hand. She couldn’t speak, she could only hear the creaking of the leather of his gloves as he tightened his grip. Through gritted teeth, he said to her, “ALL of them! Now get out, and don’t come back unless I ask for you!” he said, shoving her backwards as she stumbled into a tent pole. She clung to it, shocked by what he’d said.

“Ushar!” Kylo called through the fabric walls.

The stalwart Knight ducked his head inside.

“Take this _woman_ ,” he nearly spat, “back to her tent and keep her out of here. She’s no longer welcome.”

“You got it,” the big man said, dragging her out of Ren’s prescence.

As Ushar left Tana at the entrance to her accommodations, he looked at her. “I know what you said about Kylo, and I am going to tell you one thing,” he said quietly. “That man is many things, but a rapist isn’t one of them.” And he nodded to her as he turned back to stand sentry at Ren’s tent.

~~~~~~

Tana lay on her cot, still turning things over in her mind. What possessed her to go to him like that? He was right, it was none of her business. What difference did it make if he’d bedded one, ten, or a hundred girls? It could be said he didn’t treat women well, but she came to realize he never truly intended to take her the way he did that night. She just wasn’t supposed to be there, and it made her think - she’d heard of the continual one-upsmanship between Ren and Hux, how there was a great deal of animosity between them. It’s possible she was collateral damage in this rivalry for Supreme Leader’s favor. And it’s possible the only reason any of this mattered to her was that she was jealous at the idea of any other woman touching him, because she wanted him all to herself.

~~~~~~

As Ren directed the breaking of camp the next morning and a return to their ship, Tana looked over her equipment, remembering how it had saved Ren’s life, how close he’d come to dying. She realized she’d lost her objectivity; she could become a liability to Ren as a medic instead of an asset. She had to get her feelings under control or the next time something happened, she’d be too emotional to properly administer the care he needed.

“We leave at twenty-one hundred, Captain Talurra,” one of the troopers advised her as he poked his head inside her tent.

“Thank you, trooper,” she said, closing up the last case. She’d drained the bacta tank the day after Ren no longer needed it and everything else was in a state of readiness for the next camp. The troopers were disassembling the tent now, and as the walls came down, she saw Ren standing outside, their eyes meeting for a moment before he looked swiftly away as someone called his name.

Once the ship had been loaded, Ren gathered everyone around as he announced their next goal – to obtain the Dagger of Mortis.

“Mortis doesn’t even exist,” Sen, their navigator, objected.

“Not on this plane,” Ren responded, angered he was being questioned, glaring at Sen. “But now that we have this holocron,” he said, lifting up the newest object in his pursuit of ancient artifacts, “we know exactly where to find it.”

~~~~~~

Tana was sitting in bed, reviewing her case notes, as she heard her comm tone. Wondering which of the team needed tending, she looked down to answer it – it was Ren.

“Are you unwell, Commander?” she asked cautiously.

“Yes,” he said softly. “I was wondering if I could have you come by my quarters and look at something.”

She was hesitant, but realized the only acceptable answer was ‘yes’.

“Let me get my kit, I’ll be by shortly. Talurra out.”

She wore only her First Order issued nightshirt with her jacket thrown on top for modesty and picked up her medkit, heading down the short hallways through tight twists and turns until she reached his cabin at the end of the central gangway where she knocked softly on his door, not wanting to awaken the other crew.

The door slid open and she entered to discover him lying in bed with his pajama leg pulled up over the ankle he’d injured and a pillow underneath.

“Having more pain from the ankle?” she asked.

He nodded as he set his datapad on his nightstand. “It just doesn’t seem to want to heal,” he complained.

“ _You_ just don’t seem to want to stay off it,” she rebuked him, unable to withhold the jibe even in the midst of their silent war. He merely rolled his eyes.

“Do you mind if I…” Tana started to stammer, indicating the foot of the bed.

“Please, Captain, sit down,” he replied stiffly.

Ren’s quarters weren’t all that much larger than hers and she sat as far from him as possible in the small space without falling off the mattress. She checked it with the scanner and it seemed fine, so she simply ran the tissue mender over it again. She scolded herself that she probably should have kept up with it better over the last few weeks, but he gave her to think he’d been fine up until now.

“Kylo,” she began as she stood.

“Don’t,” he said, holding up a finger.

“I just wanted to apologize,” she told him quietly, looking down as she put her things away in her kit. “I didn’t have any right.”

He nodded slightly. “Tana, if I could take back what happened that night between us, I would, but I can’t. And you can’t forgive me for it.”

She looked up at him intently, unsure how to form into words what she was feeling.

“Would you feel better if you raped me back?” he offered with sarcasm in his voice.

“What?! No! I do forgive you. I’m not mad at you about that,” she replied. “I know you didn’t rape me – it was mistaken identity. What’s upsetting me is bigger than that, but it’s for me to deal with, and I shouldn’t be taking it out on you.”

He felt badly that he’d been snarky with her. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No! Oh, no, thank you, but I’ll get over it,” she smiled at him.

“Please,” he said, pulling her to sit back on the bed. “Your first time is supposed to be special,” he said to her. “I know I ruined that for you.”

She looked down at her hands and began crying.

“I’m sorry, please don’t cry,” he consoled her, stroking her back and regretting he’d brought it up.

“It’s not that,” she said between sobs. “It’s that, oh, Kylo…”

Holding her hands between his, he said to her, “I know, me too.”

“You mean you, you know how I’m feeling about you?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes,” he said, “I’ve known for weeks now, but I figured you’d tell me when you were ready. I didn’t want to rush you.”

Ren handed her a handkerchief which she used to dry her eyes.

“I can’t do this, though, my career-“

“Can go on just as before,” he said simply. “Look, let’s worry about this later. There’s nothing we can do this deep into the Outer Rim, I need to see this mission through and we can address it when we get back.”

She nodded as she listened to him. He was making sense, more sense than the chaos in her mind right now. This changed everything.

“One thing we can do now is to right a wrong that’s been done to you, and the sooner you get back to this, the easier it will be for you in the long-run.”

“What are you talking about?” Tana asked.

Kylo wanted her, but he decided the only way to do that in a way she would feel safe was to put her in charge.

“Take off your underwear and come here,” he said laying back down on his bed.

She did as she was bid, leaving the small bit of fabric on the floor and began to sit at the foot again, but he denied her.

“No, kneel next to me, facing the headboard,” he directed her.

She did as he asked, sitting on her knees and looking at him expectantly while he slid his thumbs under the waist band of his pants and slid them down.

“Now,” he said, sitting up in bed, “sit on my lap,” he said, taking her hands in his and slowly guiding her to sit atop him.

She was afraid of his enormous phallus, but she straddled him just the same. She was able to see him so closely, to smell his hair and look deeply into his eyes. She could see his wounds were almost completely healed at this point, so she didn’t worry she would reinjure him.

“Okay?” he asked, his eyes looking up at her keenly.

She nodded as she squeezed his hands a bit, and as she shifted her weight she could feel the muscling of his strong thighs beneath her own as she tried to calm her racing heart.

Kylo smiled gently at her and slid his hands underneath her nightshirt, tenderly stroking her. She removed it to allow him to see all of her and as she did, he took in the beauty of her breasts, his thumbs brushing lightly over her hard nipples as she shuddered, her skin prickling everywhere.

Her eyes closed as she leaned forward, finding herself leaning into his forehead. She could smell his breath, feel his warmth… as she leaned forward, she started to feel his manhood press against her, rising in search of a place within her where it could find release.

Her breathing started to quicken and she leaned back to see Kylo lost in desire. He shifted underneath of her, unconsciously trying to bring himself closer to her entrance, his body seeking hers. He knew he needed to go slow, to let her lead the dance, to let her take him when she was ready, when her need was so great she would take over, take him within herself.

His breathing quickened as well and he brought her hands down from his shoulders to rest on his chest, enjoying the feel of her warm hands on his hard nipples. He could feel her wetness against his cock where she was positioned just at the base of him.

Tana began squirming in his lap feeling his rigid penis stiffly sitting under her clitoris. She began to massage his pectoral muscles, greedily squeezing his flesh in her small hands. She was feeling strong, powerful even – she had this man under her control. She moved her legs so that she was sitting directly on the ridge underneath, the length of him slipping between her wet folds as she began sliding up and down the length of him, his breath catching in his throat. She was careful to keep the head of his penis in her view, lest it slip inside her, and she could see the blood-red tip at the apex of her. It looked angry to her – it was like the tip of a weapon he’d used against her in the past.

But she was going to sheath that weapon – _she_ was going to control it. She leaned up a bit, enough to allow his cock to rise from his belly and she put her hand between them to grasp him in her tiny hand, lifting the heavy organ into place between her slick lips. She began to run the head of him around the outside of her opening, and it was torture for both of them.

Kylo closed his eyes and leaned back, groaning in anticipation. He prayed she’d have mercy on him and take all of him soon, but at the same time, the torment was luscious. He rolled his head side to side as he massaged her breasts, fighting against the urge with all his might not to thrust himself to the hilt within her.

“Tana,” he began to plead with her as she rubbed his cock against her clit. “Please, Tana!”

But she ignored his entreaties and stroked herself with him, enjoying the stimulation she was experiencing. Soon, she wanted more, she _needed_ more. She placed him just at the edge of her entrance, hesitant to repeat the previous experience with him, but desperate to meet the pull of her body’s desperate call to fill her cavity.

She lowered her weight against him slowly, and his eyes flew open to meet hers. He held his breath, willing himself to hold still as she took the length of him, sighing as his cock stretched her delicate insides. 

As the tip of his prick reached the very pinnacle of her, he cried out, “Ahhh, Tana!”, throwing his head back in relief. He nearly came the instant he reached the full expanse of her and he breathed in rapid gasps as he fought against his body’s intense reaction.

Tana sat still for a moment, taking in all of him, both inside and outside, relishing the fulfillment she was experiencing. She was stretched almost painfully full, but she loved it. She began to grind her clitoris against his groin, rocking her hips forward and back, his rock-hard cock sliding in and out of her.

“Yes, yes please,” he moaned still grappling against wresting control from her, leaving him totally at her mercy. He was becoming frantic, now manically grasping the sheets in his hands and twisting them in his tight grip as his head lolled back and forth, his body seeking an outlet anywhere. He wanted so badly to move but he was afraid he would take her, take her the way _he_ wanted.

She continued to ride him in earnest, her movements become less languorous and more rhythmic, torturing him with the intensity. She was gripping his shoulders so hard with her nails she nearly pierced his skin. She was breathing heavily as she began to grind against him harder and faster. She sighed his name as she pressed down harder against him with every stroke, burying him deep inside her belly, until she finally reached the moment she could hold back no longer and cried out, collapsing forward on him as he finally released his climax. As he held her tightly to him, the pulsations of his body continuing to fill her with his seed, her own orgasm was prolonged.

Tana nearly sobbed as the sensation began to ebb, and Kylo sighed as he caught his breath. It had taken everything out of him and he lay back exhausted.

“Are you okay?” he asked her between breaths as she lay on his chest. Tana could only nod her head as she moved to lay next to him, and they fell asleep curled up next to each other.


	13. Chapter 13

# Chapter 13

The rest of the trip was harrowing as they flew through rogue magnetospheres, black holes, gravity wells, and other interstellar hazards. When the holocron finally brought them to their destination, they found the environs were bizarre. It was night and the skies were alive with lightning, bolts streaking perpetually across the sky as the clouds roiled with darkness. 

They planned to await daybreak to begin their explorations. Throughout the night the ship was rocked constantly by the buffeting winds, and sleeping was difficult, especially in the small bunks, and specifically for Tana. She rose from Kylo’s bunk and went to the cockpit to watch the rain. She found Kylo already there, doing the same.

“When is sunrise?” Tana asked as she peered through the front canopy and watched the rain blow sideways.

“There’s no way of knowing,” Ren replied. “This isn’t a planet so much as a place; it’s not within the confines of normal space as we know it, so it has no measurable orbit in which to determine the start of day or night.”

“That’s bizarre,” Tana replied, pulling her jacket around her shoulders.

They each sat in a seat, separated by the consoles, quietly watching the rain for a while until Tana finally looked at him.

“You weren’t there when I awoke,” she said, rebuking him lightly.

Kylo didn’t answer her, instead blinking as he stared through the viewport for several minutes.

“I won’t tell you I love you,” he finally said solemnly. "That’s not my life, Tana. I care for you, I want you, but don't ask me to say that to you. I need you to know that before this goes any further."

Tana now felt terribly awkward and excused herself. As she went to pass by behind him, Kylo reached out to take her fingers. He lifted them to his lips, kissed them, and then let her go gently without looking her in the eye.

Returning to her cabin, she pondered everything that had transpired between them the last couple of days and tried to make sense of it, but she was tired and she dosed herself with a sedative in order to push Kylo out of her mind in search of much-needed sleep.

~~~~~~

The crew assembled at the foot of the ramp the next morning in a world so beautiful, Tana thought it was the afterlife.

Mortis was abloom in lush greenery while the mountains were topped by floating monoliths. There was life everywhere, and the light was pleasant but filtered – coming from no specific direction. ‘This couldn’t be the place we landed last night,’ she thought to herself.

Kylo had his helmet on today as he started pulling his team together, directing a handful of troopers to assemble. Turning to the crew, he said, “I want Vicrul, Ap’lek and Talurra, with me,”

“Me?” Tana asked, pointing to herself. “I’m not a scout,” she objected.

Kylo grabbed her by the arm and pulled her aside.

“Have you seen me studying any maps of this place?” he asked her impatiently.

She realized you’d seen him doing it for Lothal, but not here. She shook her head in the negative.

“Do you know why? Because there aren’t any,” he whispered sternly at her. “If one of us is hurt, we may not be able to make it back here in time for help before night comes. I need you _with_ the team so you can be there when we need you.”

What he said frightened her, and she nodded in compliance and went to get her field kit.

When she returned, the team was loaded up and ready to head out on foot to where Kylo believed they would find the dagger.

~~~~~~

As they put the ship hours behind them, Tana noticed Kylo was repeatedly checking a homing beacon on his wrist. She also noticed he seemed bothered by it.

“Not working?” she whispered to him.

“No,” he said gravely. “There’s all kinds of interference.”

“And the flora,” she observed, “it keeps changing as the day gets longer, look,” she said, pointing at a tree they had been observing as they climbed a slope. It had just been blooming not a half hour ago, but now was turning colors and shedding its leaves.

Kylo stopped to lift a leaf in the palm of his glove. The leaf turned brown and fell off into his hand, and he crumbled it between his fingers and let it drift to the ground. Looking determined, he said, “Let’s move.”

Ren put the team into double-time now. They only slowed as a building loomed about a mile away in the late afternoon. However, as the team dipped below the horizon between two peaks, they suddenly lost sight of the building on the next rise. They came to a halt and the troopers began chatting amongst themselves as Kylo thought on what just occurred.

“Quiet,” he commanded his men, and they quickly moved back into formation. Kylo knew he needed to do something, fast. Night was falling and the legends were that no living being could survive the night out of doors on Mortis. He needed to get the team to safety. Sensing through The Force, he detected a void nearby and brought the group to a small cave in the side of one of the mountainous slopes they’d been climbing.

The cave itself was wondrous - glowing crystals grew from the floor in clumps, illuminating the inside well enough they didn’t need their lanterns. The team scoured the entrance for firewood, afraid to wander too far from the cave itself, and built a small encampment inside the dry cavern. One of the troopers located an underground spring, and after Tana tested it safe from impurities, the group loaded up on fresh water. They watched as the night raced over the horizon, falling like a heavy curtain.

Just as the night before, thunder and lightning hammered the surface of the world, and it not only rained in sheets, but boiling rain that scorched everything it touched.

Kylo had withdrawn to a corner of the cavern conversing with Vicrul, leaving the team to fend for themselves. Tana tended to a couple of minor issues with the crew, and the rest of the knights and troopers made dinner.

Everyone gathered around the campfire to eat dinner, except for Kylo. Tana decided to dish him up something and make sure he ate.

“Hungry?” she offered as she bent down to where he was seated next to a small clump of stalagmites.

He took the bowl from her silently, eating a few bites before saying “You didn’t care I was hungry a couple of weeks ago.”

“I did last night,” she said, winking at him. He didn’t return her jest at first but then looked at her sidelong and gave her that half-cocked smile. “Watch yourself with the crew,” he advised her, “they need to know they can trust you and that your allegiance is to ‘us,’ not to ‘me’,” and then he rose to walk off by himself to meditate, she presumed.

And he did. Kylo walked a short path down a small tunnel at the back of the cavern, still lit by tiny stalagmites. As he wandered down the rocky path, he thought he heard a voice, and then the tunnel opened up into another smaller cavern. Standing there was a vision of his mother.

“Ben,” she said, reaching out to him, her hands gnarled with age, robes draped heavily around her shoulders and her hair arranged in her typical fashion.

Kylo circled her, unsure if this was a Force vision. His mother had never been that strong with it, and he thought she would have tried to contact him before now if she could have. He must be projecting this out of his own mind, but why? He’d severed his link to his mother long ago.

“Ben,” she called to him again.

“Mother,” he replied tightly.

“Ben, you must return,” she implored him.

“No,” he denied her, “there’s nothing to return to. There never has been.”

“But Ben,” she tried reasoning with him, “there’s nothing for you in the dark except pain.”

“You mean like the pain of my parents being afraid of me because I was tainted at birth? Pain that my uncle was so afraid I was stronger than him that he wanted to murder me?” he raged. “The dark means vengeance, the dark possesses power, and the dark will bring me victory over everything that’s hurt me my entire life!”

He calmed a bit now, his voice becoming more even. “I will never return to you,” he spat at the vision, “I have my plans. I am going to become as powerful as my grandfather so I can bring his plans to fruition. Do not try to stop me.”

“My son,” she pleaded, “I’m sorry for the pain I caused you but you must know that as the grandson of The Chosen One, you hold great powers that you must use for the good of the galaxy.”

Wait, this couldn’t be his mother – she never spoke of his grandfather Anakin as The Chosen One.

“This is a lie,” he said, striding up the vision and confronting it. “Who are you?”

“I am your MOTHER!" And as the last word sprang from her mouth, she transformed into a bizarre, toothy abomination of a woman. Kylo leapt back and reached for his lightsaber but she was gone in a whiff of mist before he could ignite it.

~~~~~~

The team had gathered near the fire and began to worry as Ren stayed absent for several hours. They had begun discussing whether to go in search of him when he suddenly returned, pale and sweaty.

Tana didn’t like the look of him, thinking he appeared wan even in the eerie light of the cavern and she rose to meet him.

“I want to run your vitals,” she said with concern, but he brushed her aside.

“I’ll be fine, let’s all get some sleep,” he ordered them. Tana slept between the troopers and the Knights, wishing she could be curled up next to Kylo the way she was the night before.

However, Kylo Ren was wanting to be anywhere but where he was right now as the echoes of his mother’s voice followed him into his sleep.

~~~~~~

At daybreak, the team broke camp and loaded up on water one last time before they headed out. 

Kylo was determined to either find the dagger or return to the ship and regroup, so he put them on double-time march again. After several hours, they had the building in sight once more and Kylo locked in the estimated sight coordinates to lead them there. His ploy worked, for after another hour, they came to the base of a magnificent castle-like structure.

The interior was cavernous, and there were elegant designs that were integral parts of the walls and floors. They strode carefully through the building, taking in everything, and they soon discovered they were walking through a monastery.

It was eerily quiet, and Tana crept behind Kylo, next to Ap’lek. She had developed a fondness for the man since Lothal, and he seemed to have taken a shine to her as well. Vicrul took point while the others brought up the rear. Tana appreciated she was in the center, protected from whatever may come their way.

Kylo was making his way along by sensing through The Force, which was extraordinarily difficult, given the makeup of Mortis. It heaved with Force energy from both the light side and the dark side, and there was even some vague neutral energy but it was all muddled together and he was having to focus to try to hone in on the one thing he was listening for.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Vicrul mumbled as his eyes swept the massive hall. Their gaze all fell on an altar at the far end of the nave and two staircases which sank down behind it. Kylo considered it for a moment, and approached, running his hand along the chiseled edge. He removed his helmet which he set on the altar and turned to the crew. “I’m going down. All of you stay here,” he announced, and took the stairway on the left.

Tana stepped forward and announced, “I’m coming with you,” sounding braver than she felt.

Kylo stopped on the top step and turned to look at her over his shoulder. “No,” said with his usual sternness.

“I need to be there in case something happens to you, right?” she said, reminding him of her reason for being dragged along.

He sighed and shrugged, resigned to have her follow. “I suppose it won’t matter if you’re down there or up here,” he replied.

As they crept down the curved stairway, they saw a slab of stone engraved with one of the many designs repeated throughout the monastery. Convinced this was where he would find the dagger, Kylo held out his hand and used The Force to move aside the heavy stone.

There underneath was the Dagger of Mortis being held in the hands of what looked to be a perfectly preserved and lovely woman.

Tana covered her mouth and gasped. “Who is she?” she asked breathlessly.

“She is my daughter,” replied a deep voice emanating from all around the crypt. Kylo moved back to block Tana, and pivoted them both against the stairwell.

“And you are The Father,” Kylo replied with a touch of awe in his voice.

“And who are you?” the voice asked.

“I am the Grandson of The Chosen One,” he replied, echoing the words of The Mother.

“Begone, Grandson of The Chosen One,” it threatened, “there is nothing here for you. Though _he_ restored the balance of The Force, _you_ are following in the footsteps of my son.”

“I am not leaving here without the dagger,” Ren answered with determination in his voice. As he reached out through The Force to retrieve the dagger, the disembodied voice of The Father warned him: “STOP! The price must be paid!”

The dagger flew past Kylo’s hand and into the chest of Tana who had been cowering behind him.

“NO!” Kylo screamed, cradling Tana as she fell against the stairwell. “No, no!!” he cried as the echoes of The Father’s voice died out.

She looked shocked, and she was gasping for breath as Kylo pulled the dagger from her and blood poured from her chest.

A few of the team had rushed down upon hearing an uproar, and they found Kylo cradling Tana in his lap on the floor.

Kylo was looking at her in desperation when Tana reached up to touch his face. “Kylo,” she whispered as he took her hand in his, she pleaded. “Can’t breathe… turn…my side…”

“Vicrul,” he directed his comrade as he gently lifted Tana onto her flank, “try to raise the shuttle on the commlink, we need a pick-up.”

The Knight raced off to the upper level to try getting a message through but it was interminable minutes waiting for Vicrul to return. In the meantime, Tana’s medkit was opened, and Kylo and the team rummaged through it, finding dressing to press into the wound.

He needed to buy her time at any cost and he formed an idea. “Tana, this may save you but it’s going to hurt like hell.” She was beginning to fade, and all she could do as she gasped for air was nod feebly, which Kylo hoped would be a blessing. “Ap’lek, grab her hands,” he demanded of his comrade, who was already there, seeing where Kylo was going with his plan.

Leaning over her from behind and tearing her shirt and bra open, Kylo fired his lightsaber to life. Holding the side vents of the unstable weapon toward her chest, he cauterized the wound as best he could, the smell of burning flesh nauseating them all. Her hold on Ap’lek’s fingers was like tiny vices as he held her hands in his calloused grip and she screamed as a woman torn to ribbons. She eventually passed out from the pain, allowing Kylo a few crucial moments to tend a few stray bleeders.

Kylo shut the lightsaber off and sat back against the wall, hands resting on his knees as he considered Tana lying before him, blood soaking the stone floor. “We have to get out of here,” he declared, looking over at Ap’lek. As Kylo heaved her into his arms, he directed Ap’lek to bring the dagger. Kylo felt it seemed crude at the moment, but he wasn’t going to let Tana’s sacrifice go to waste.

Mounting the top of the stairs, Kylo was met by Vicrul. “They’re on their way,” he announced excitedly and Kylo nodded in gratitude. He looked down to see blood frothing from Tana’s mouth as her body tried in vain to breathe. He laid her down for a moment, holding her on her side to keep her from choking. “Hurry,” Kylo muttered to himself. He prayed it was all worth it in the end.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Readers, you have encouraged me and helped me find my voice and my joy again. Thank you for your eyes and imaginations as you read along with my adventure! I hope you found this enjoyable and I invite you to check back for new material.  
> May The Force Be With You!

Kylo paced impatiently at the medbay window, watching the doctors and droids work on Tana. She’d almost died three times on the way back, but her instructions to the crew were what saved her. She told them what to administer and when, and they’d followed her advice. Kylo almost laughed at the irony – she’d demanded he follow her medical advice, but he didn’t realize it would be not just for him, but for her as well.

When they finally let Kylo in to see her, she looked like a cadaver and her colleagues’ faces were grave. No one approached Ren to give him good news because they couldn’t, but they were curious why he was so invested in this particular medic. 

He noted their interest in his presence at Tana’s bedside and left, realizing he would start generating gossip and there was nothing else he could do for her. Either she would live, or she would die, and he would deal with whatever transpired. He had other things to focus on now that she was stable. He needed to discover the significance of the dagger.

Ren donned his helmet as he left Tana’s room and strode down the hallway to the senior staff level where Hux stood waiting for him.

“Back from your little field trip, I see,” Hux said smiling.

“Not now, Hux,” Ren replied, trying to bypass the smirking officer.

“I think you’ll want to make time for me, Ren,” Hux said as he fell in step with Kylo, bringing his hands out from behind his back and brandishing the dagger. “What an interesting little piece of ephemera,” the General said as he turned the weapon over in his hands, his eyes roaming over it in curiosity.

“That,” Kylo spat in rage, his voice crackling through the vocoder, “belongs to me.”

“Actually,” Hux tried to correct him, “considering the effort and resources that went into its retrieval, I’d say it belongs to the First Order.”

“Snoke will see about that,” said Kylo as he snatched it from Hux’s hands before the General could keep it from him.

“Yes, let’s see Snoke, we’ll see what he has to say, shall we?” and Hux escorted Ren into his office where Snoke’s image appeared in transmission form.

“Supreme Leader,” Kylo addressed his master as he knelt in submission.

“Kylo, my boy, why have you been gone from me for so long?” the wizened ruler asked.

“I am following the footsteps of my grandfather,” he answered, trying to sound vague.

Leaning forward, Snoke asked, “And where did they take you, aside from a brush with death?”

“To the land of Mortis,” Kylo replied. “I have found the Dagger of Mortis and I beg leave to study it in further depth.”

“Do you now?” Snoke asked, “and what do you hope to learn from it?”

Here, Kylo hesitated. “I don’t know yet,” the young man bluffed. “That remains to be seen.”

“Very well,” Snoke answered, “but Kylo, do watch your involvement with the young lady. Your focus should be on bringing the First Order to victory over the Resistance. Let _nothing_ stand in your way.”

“I will not, Supreme Leader,” Kylo answered his master as he looked over at Hux, the glare visible to Armitage even through Ren’s visor. As the transmission blinked out, Ren stalked Hux across the room and backed him up against a wall, his corporeal fingers the ones to tighten around Hux’s throat this time.

“I know you know her and she thinks of you as a friend, for whatever reason. Don’t betray her,” Kylo warned. “She sacrificed much to bring this here and I won’t have you dishonor it.” With that, Kylo marched from the General’s quarters.

Minutes later, the sounds of a lightsaber arcing through equipment could be heard crackling from the young commander’s ready room.

~~~~~~

Kylo sat in his meditation chamber examining the dagger as it lay before him.

“Grandfather, if you could only tell me what this means,” Kylo pleaded to the helmet of his grandfather, the twisted material sadly silent as Kylo sought a connection. He traced his fingers along the edge of the blade, the twisted handle, the pommel… he saw the smallest trace of blood at the base where a tiny drop had escaped his attempts to clean it. He thought back on the day that Kuruk had brought him the blade, wrapped in a small piece of cloth. Kylo had opened it to find that the fabric had stuck to the dagger, still damp with Tana’s blood, so much blood.

Ren thought back to the crypt, remembering the moment of horror when he pulled the weapon toward him, but its path veered away at the last moment when The Father turned the dagger on Tana. He could still hear her gasp in his mind, for it haunted him more than any foe’s felled in battle. Only the attempt to decipher the riddle of the dagger had distracted him from the scene he saw in his mind’s eye day and night.

He left the speck of red where it was and continued his research, looking for mention of the dagger in the stack of scrolls he held in his rooms. There were tales of The Father, Son and Daughter, who had all perished during the Clone War era. Moreover, Kylo finally realized that the woman who came to him in the guise of Leia was probably the spirit of The Mother, and she was known as Abeloth. The family was known as The Ones, powerful Force users who had obtained their abilities by drinking from the Font of Power and bathing in the Pool of Knowledge. The Mother and The Father kept the balance between The Son, who held the dark side, and The Daughter, who held the light.[1]

Ren could find nothing in the archives to determine where the dagger came from, but it was known that the dagger was a weapon capable of killing The Ones, for The Daughter had died at the hands of The Son by it and The Father had died at his own hands by it. What Kylo had found at the end of a very long course of study was that his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, had killed The Son with it. Had Anakin taken the dagger to the tomb and placed it with The Daughter, where Kylo found it?

Maybe that was all Ren needed to know – that he possessed a weapon capable of killing supernatural Force beings, should they ever return. If nothing else, it would give him another asset in his bid to free himself from Snoke, who was in some way a supernatural being, but in what form, he did not know.

~~~~~~

Kylo Ren stood at the observation window of the medbay watching Tana’s halting steps as the nurses worked to help her put one foot in front of another. The surgeons had advised that the blood loss had left her with brain damage and memory loss and her recovery was slow.

“Did you want to come in to see her, Commander?” Corporal Catelle asked Ren from around the side of the doorway as he stood outside the one-way glass.

“No,” he replied quietly. “How's her progress today?”

“Well, it’s only been a couple of days since she woke up, but it isn’t what they’d like to see.” Catelle looked sad. “She still thinks she’s a lieutenant,” she whispered to him. “She doesn’t remember being transferred to _The Finalizer,_ or me, or Danvers.”

“What’s the last thing she remembers?” Kylo asked, surprised.

“She thinks she’s scheduled to give you your physical this week,” Bria shrugged. “Shall I tell her you stopped by?” she asked.

Ren thought deeply for a moment, then replied, “No, tell her nothing.”

Catelle nodded at him and slid the door back closed.

Kylo stood there for many more minutes observing Tana’s efforts before he was joined by Ap’lek.

“How is she?” his friend asked after the young woman.

Kylo shook his head in the negative. “She won’t remember me…”

“Maybe that’s for the best, eh?” Ap’lek nudged him, trying to cheer him up. He thought he saw a shadow of a tear on Ren’s face.

“Look, Kylo,” Ap’lek said, resting his hand on the young knight’s shoulder, “that girl was in love with you, but that's over now. You remember me telling you back on Lothal when _you_ were injured, that girl had done right by you. If you want to do right by _her_ ,” Ap’lek hesitated, “leave her be.”

~~~~~~

Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order, was working in his ready room having assumed power just a few short weeks ago, studying logistical reports about the upcoming siege on a newly discovered Resistance outpost. It had been months since he’d finally watched Tana walk from the medbay to return to duty under General Hux’s crew.

The door toned, and Kylo bid his Adjutant enter.

“Supreme Leader,” the assistant addressed him, “here are your communiques from _The Steadfast_.”

“That will be all,” he said, dismissing the officer

Kylo thumbed through the superfluous reports, set aside the maps, and then lifted out one particular packet. His name was inscribed in a flourishing High Galactic script on the envelope. He cracked it open and read the contents, taking in the meaning before standing to look out the window toward the fleet.

There on the desk lay the open envelope, and inside a card:

The pleasure of your company  
is requested at the marriage  
of  
Captain Tana Rene’a Talurra  
to  
General Armitage Brendol Hux  
The Steadfast  
Fourteen hundred, Primeday  
34 ABY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Star Wars: The Clone Wars – "Overlords" (Ep. 315), "Altar of Mortis" (Ep. 316), "Ghosts of Mortis" (Ep. 317)


End file.
